Allen Dee
Lead Service Attendant
Local News
Rise in local railroad deaths causing concern
1/26/04
By HILDY MEDINA
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
An increase in the number of deaths on railroad tracks in Santa Barbara County has alarmed railroad and law enforcement officials and caught the attention of a national rail-safety group.
Last year, nine pedestrians were killed here by trains -- triple the number who died in 2002.
Earlier this month, Santa Barbara Police Department Officer George Hansen nearly lost his life when he jumped in front of an approaching locomotive to push an apparently suicidal man off the tracks.
Twenty people have died on the tracks in Santa Barbara County since 2000, according to the Federal Railroad Administration and local reports. The county has among the highest number of casualties in the state, surpassing neighboring Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties, which had 15 and three deaths, respectively. Homeless people accounted for all but one of the deaths, according to law enforcement officials.
"Ultimately the number one issue for injuries and deaths is going to be alcohol and drugs. We're not having sober people generally going out there," said Sgt. Jim Pfleging of the Santa Barbara Police Department. "Many of the (homeless) are dual-diagnosed, where mental illness drives them to drink and use drugs."
Nationally, the number of pedestrians killed by trains has now surpassed the number of people killed by trains colliding with cars.
"That's becoming an increasing concern," said John Bromley, a spokesman for Union Pacific Railroad. "A lot of those we believe are suicides. An individual sitting on the tracks suggests a suicide. You don't have to be a coroner to figure that out."
Tracking the number of suicides versus accidental train deaths is difficult, says Sgt. Pfleging.
"We had one (train death by the zoo) last year, and the guy was sitting on the rails and people thought it was a suicide until we found his Walkman and the music was blaring," Sgt. Pfleging said.
The spate of deaths along Santa Barbara County's railroad tracks has caught the eye of a national nonprofit rail-safety group, Operation Lifesaver, which is funded by rail companies.
"We wondered what was happening there," said state coordinator Eric Jacobsen.
He said the group plans to approach city officials in the coming weeks to work on how to best deal with the problem.
The increase in train-related deaths comes just a year after speed limits in the area were raised to 60 mph for passenger trains and 40 mph for freight trains.
But some safety experts say, and statistics show, that these accidents are not caused by higher speeds but rather by people making bad choices.
"Everybody thinks more speed, more problems. Actually, statistically what we've seen is if the speed of the train increases we usually have less difficulties," said Mr. Jacobsen, who worked as an agent with the railroad police for 24 years.
"When you're looking down the tracks you know as a railroader you have no idea how fast it's going. We continue to have people making horrendously bad judgments."
In November, for example, a woman was killed by a freight train near the Amtrak station on State Street as she was slowly pedaling her bike across the track. Witnesses say she was carrying beers with her and appeared oblivious to the approaching locomotive's horn until it was too late.
As many as 20 trains barrel through Santa Barbara every day, crossing busy State and Yanonali streets.
About a dozen homeless encampments line the tracks, some just a few yards from the rails.
LeeAnn Preece, a safety manager with the Federal Railroad Administration, said educating the homeless on how to steer clear of a train's path is nearly impossible, at times.
"You can talk to someone until you're blue in the face, but they continue to think it's their given right to walk on the railroad tracks," said Ms. Preece.
The railroads that run through the county are owned by Union Pacific. They're private property and anyone seen trespassing or setting up camp near the tracks could be cited.
Police have increased their patrols around the tracks by 80 percent over the last nine months, Sgt. Pfleging said, checking for illegal camping and drug use. Recently, local law enforcement has also worked closely with Union Pacific's railroad police to help enforce illegal trespassing rules by posting signs and policing the tracks.
Keeping the homeless off the tracks, however, has proven to be a serious challenge for local law enforcement, who say that while train speed is a factor, the bigger problem is the number of people who are drinking or using drugs just feet from the tracks.
"It's difficult to educate people who are going to be intoxicated or stoned later on that evening," Sgt. Pfleging said. Moving the (homeless) out of there is a full-time job because there's so many of them."
One solution, police say, is having railroad trespassers spend more time in custody and away from the tracks. Another could be to bulldoze the heavy brush around the tracks, which offers shelter for many of the homeless.
"It's not going to be easy" to solve the problem, Sgt. Pfleging said. "If these were cars getting hit, that's one thing. You can fix a gate, but unless you rid the area of vegetation and turn it into a parking lot where you can see them from 100 yards away and no one can camp there, then you're always going to have people coming in and out of there."
Rise in local railroad deaths causing concern
1/26/04
By HILDY MEDINA
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
An increase in the number of deaths on railroad tracks in Santa Barbara County has alarmed railroad and law enforcement officials and caught the attention of a national rail-safety group.
Last year, nine pedestrians were killed here by trains -- triple the number who died in 2002.
Earlier this month, Santa Barbara Police Department Officer George Hansen nearly lost his life when he jumped in front of an approaching locomotive to push an apparently suicidal man off the tracks.
Twenty people have died on the tracks in Santa Barbara County since 2000, according to the Federal Railroad Administration and local reports. The county has among the highest number of casualties in the state, surpassing neighboring Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties, which had 15 and three deaths, respectively. Homeless people accounted for all but one of the deaths, according to law enforcement officials.
"Ultimately the number one issue for injuries and deaths is going to be alcohol and drugs. We're not having sober people generally going out there," said Sgt. Jim Pfleging of the Santa Barbara Police Department. "Many of the (homeless) are dual-diagnosed, where mental illness drives them to drink and use drugs."
Nationally, the number of pedestrians killed by trains has now surpassed the number of people killed by trains colliding with cars.
"That's becoming an increasing concern," said John Bromley, a spokesman for Union Pacific Railroad. "A lot of those we believe are suicides. An individual sitting on the tracks suggests a suicide. You don't have to be a coroner to figure that out."
Tracking the number of suicides versus accidental train deaths is difficult, says Sgt. Pfleging.
"We had one (train death by the zoo) last year, and the guy was sitting on the rails and people thought it was a suicide until we found his Walkman and the music was blaring," Sgt. Pfleging said.
The spate of deaths along Santa Barbara County's railroad tracks has caught the eye of a national nonprofit rail-safety group, Operation Lifesaver, which is funded by rail companies.
"We wondered what was happening there," said state coordinator Eric Jacobsen.
He said the group plans to approach city officials in the coming weeks to work on how to best deal with the problem.
The increase in train-related deaths comes just a year after speed limits in the area were raised to 60 mph for passenger trains and 40 mph for freight trains.
But some safety experts say, and statistics show, that these accidents are not caused by higher speeds but rather by people making bad choices.
"Everybody thinks more speed, more problems. Actually, statistically what we've seen is if the speed of the train increases we usually have less difficulties," said Mr. Jacobsen, who worked as an agent with the railroad police for 24 years.
"When you're looking down the tracks you know as a railroader you have no idea how fast it's going. We continue to have people making horrendously bad judgments."
In November, for example, a woman was killed by a freight train near the Amtrak station on State Street as she was slowly pedaling her bike across the track. Witnesses say she was carrying beers with her and appeared oblivious to the approaching locomotive's horn until it was too late.
As many as 20 trains barrel through Santa Barbara every day, crossing busy State and Yanonali streets.
About a dozen homeless encampments line the tracks, some just a few yards from the rails.
LeeAnn Preece, a safety manager with the Federal Railroad Administration, said educating the homeless on how to steer clear of a train's path is nearly impossible, at times.
"You can talk to someone until you're blue in the face, but they continue to think it's their given right to walk on the railroad tracks," said Ms. Preece.
The railroads that run through the county are owned by Union Pacific. They're private property and anyone seen trespassing or setting up camp near the tracks could be cited.
Police have increased their patrols around the tracks by 80 percent over the last nine months, Sgt. Pfleging said, checking for illegal camping and drug use. Recently, local law enforcement has also worked closely with Union Pacific's railroad police to help enforce illegal trespassing rules by posting signs and policing the tracks.
Keeping the homeless off the tracks, however, has proven to be a serious challenge for local law enforcement, who say that while train speed is a factor, the bigger problem is the number of people who are drinking or using drugs just feet from the tracks.
"It's difficult to educate people who are going to be intoxicated or stoned later on that evening," Sgt. Pfleging said. Moving the (homeless) out of there is a full-time job because there's so many of them."
One solution, police say, is having railroad trespassers spend more time in custody and away from the tracks. Another could be to bulldoze the heavy brush around the tracks, which offers shelter for many of the homeless.
"It's not going to be easy" to solve the problem, Sgt. Pfleging said. "If these were cars getting hit, that's one thing. You can fix a gate, but unless you rid the area of vegetation and turn it into a parking lot where you can see them from 100 yards away and no one can camp there, then you're always going to have people coming in and out of there."
