Bridge to Be Built Where MTA Train Killed Youth - LA Times

Los Angeles Times
Times Staff Writer
February 25, 2000

Design work has begun on a pedestrian bridge over the Blue Line light rail tracks at the site where a 13-year-old boy was struck by a train and killed last summer.

The bridge, to be built at the intersection of 55th Street and Long Beach Avenue, will be funded by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the rail line.

The MTA proposed the project in 1996, but plans for a bridge gained new urgency when Gilberto Reynaga was struck by a train last July 17 as he and a friend darted across the tracks while heading home from playing basketball.

After the accident, City Councilwoman Rita Walters, who has been pressing for the bridge for years, got the city to station a crossing guard at the intersection.

Construction of the bridge is scheduled to begin in November and completion is expected in June 2001.

MTA Can Do Little to Boost Crossing Safety, Study Finds - LA Times

Los Angeles Times
By Douglas P. Shuit
February 22, 2000

If anyone should know the dangers of the Metro Blue Line inside and out, it would be Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke.

As head of the powerful Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Burke plays a leading role in setting policy for operating the Blue Line, whose trains operate along city streets and have killed 53 people since it opened in 1990. That is by far the most deaths for any light rail line in the state and is believed to be the most in the nation.

And, as someone who lives and works in the area served by the Blue Line, Burke regularly experiences the anxiety motorists face when crossing the tracks. Getting caught inside the gates when a train comes is a constant fear.

"I have not actually been stuck [inside the gates], but I have been concerned about getting stuck," she said. "If there is any traffic ahead of you as you start going across, there is a tremendous potential of getting caught. So, I tell you . . . I fly across the tracks."

Burke's comments are informative because the MTA, after a two- month in-house safety analysis, is essentially moving forward with its current Blue Line policy, which she indicates will not make her feel much safer.

Burke and others on the MTA's board of directors are finding that there are few dramatic moves they can make to improve safety on the heavily used rail line, which provides riders with as many as 57,000 trips a day on the 22-mile run between downtown Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The analysis, prompted by the deaths of six people Nov. 27 and Times stories exploring safety issues on the Blue Line, included an estimate that creating a grade separation--in effect, moving the tracks off the street--would cost as much as $1.6 billion. That is far more than the district can afford, and represents roughly twice the Blue Line's original construction cost.

That leaves MTA managers with a game plan that involves continuing the same policies that they have been following for years, with some tweaking here and there.

In an effort to reduce the number of so-called "S" turns, in which motorists use open traffic lanes to drive around closed traffic gates, the MTA plans to install four gates, rather than the conventional two, at as many as two crossings a year. Traffic signals also will be upgraded. And a stepped-up program of televised, public safety announcements, movie trailers, radio messages, billboards and school safety programs will be implemented.

At Imperial Highway, where there have been a number of accidents involving Blue Line trains, the city of Los Angeles, county, MTA and Caltrans are jointly financing construction of a $20-million bridge for motor vehicle traffic over the railroad tracks.

The MTA's safety program also would apply to the first phase of the 13.7-mile Pasadena light rail line. The Pasadena line is being built at street level, so will face similar traffic problems during its run through Lincoln Heights, Highland Park, South Pasadena and Pasadena. The line is being built by the Pasadena Blue Line Construction Authority, but is being financed and will be operated by the MTA.

During a hearing on Blue Line issues before the MTA's operations committee last week, Burke made a point of saying that the best chance of paying for grade separations comes during construction, because once a system is built the costs become prohibitive. Still, although she made it clear that she thinks grade separations would save lives, she said the MTA doesn't have money for grade separations on that system.

Residents along the proposed Pasadena route are becoming increasingly restive. Jim Leong, a retired businessman representing the Mount Washington Assn., pleaded for a grade separation during the operations committee hearing, although the Pasadena Blue Line Construction Authority has rejected the possibility of major changes to the project.

The Mount Washington Assn. is reconsidering its conditional support for the Pasadena rail line, in large part because of the Los Angeles line's safety record, Leong said. "When the Pasadena line was planned, we didn't have the experience of the Los Angeles Blue Line. Now we have 53 deaths. That is scaring some people," Leong said.

Richard Thorpe, chief executive officer of the Pasadena Blue Line Construction Authority, said he believes conditions on the Eastside are different from those on the Los Angeles-to-Long Beach line.

For one thing, the Pasadena line will not have freight trains running alongside its own trains, as does the Los Angeles line, Thorpe said. Nor will there be streets running parallel to the trains. Some of those who have studied the Los Angeles line believe the slowness of the Union Pacific freight trains frustrates motorists and causes them to take risks they might not ordinarily take. Left turns in front of trains are a leading contributor to Los Angeles Blue Line accidents.

MTA authorities have consistently argued that they believe the large number of deaths and injuries on the Los Angeles Blue Line is caused by risky behavior by pedestrians and motorists, who flout traffic laws and warning signals as they cross in front of trains.

An analysis of Blue Line accident records by The Times indicated that speed may be a contributor. It found that 85% of the deaths have occurred in the high-speed corridor, where trains go through intersections at 55 mph. An analysis comparing the Blue Line with light rail systems across the country found that the MTA trains operate at one of the highest average rates of speed. The Times also found that the last 18 deaths have all involved trains traveling south, whose speed tends to be higher through intersections.

MTA safety chief Paul Lennon, who put together the in-house analysis, said after the operations committee hearing that he is not recommending any changes in the speed of trains. He made it clear he still believes the main problem is that people go around closed crossing gates or ignore warning signals and horns. MTA investigations have held victims to have been at fault in all cases.

"The 55-mph speed I think is a very reasonable safe transit speed," he said. Influencing his belief is a fear that if the trains are slowed appreciably, the riders will return to cars. "My concern is that people might get off that train, find a $200 car and become a statistic someplace else. We are in the lifesaving business, as far as I am concerned."

Lennon said the MTA will continue to look into factors contributing to the string of accidents on the southbound tracks.

Burke said she is not satisfied with the steps Lennon is recommending. She said further steps must be taken "to prevent some of these accidents," but had no concrete proposals. Although the costs are prohibitive, she said, "I believe we have to look at some alternative for grade separation."

Car Hit by Blue Line Ricochets into Another

7 Suffer Minor Injuries When Train Hits Car

Los Angeles Times
By John L. Mitchell
December 23, 1999

An automobile drove around a closed crossing gate and was struck by a Metro Blue Line train Wednesday in Watts, resulting in minor injuries to seven people, an MTA official said.

The crash occurred about 11:08 a.m. as the southbound train traveled through the three-sided intersection at 114th Street and Wilmington and Willowbrook avenues, said Gary Wosk of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The train was preparing to stop at the upcoming Imperial / Wilmington station when an elderly man drove his car around the crossing gate, Wosk said. The train operator was 90 feet away when he noticed the car and applied his emergency brakes, but the train clipped the car's right rear, sending it about 100 feet down Wilmington Avenue, where it rear-ended another auto.

Five people on the train complained of neck and back pain, and four were taken to hospitals, Wosk said. The drivers of both cars also suffered minor injuries and were treated.

The accident caused a 40-minute disruption of service.

Since 1992, there have been nine accidents between cars and Blue Line trains, including four fatalities, along that stretch of Wilmington Avenue that includes at least three intersections. Since the Blue Line opened in 1990, there have been 53 fatalities in accidents involving cars and pedestrians, Wosk said.

Where Rapid Transit Means Constant Risk - LA Times

Los Angeles Times
By Douglas P. Shuit
November 15, 1999

It’s Michael Walden’s first week as the operator of a Los Angeles Metro Blue Line train. He’s a former bus driver, but the differences between bus and rail are like night and day.

Accidents are commonplace, and deaths to motorists and pedestrians along the Blue Line are the highest among California’s light-rail systems.

Trains can reach speeds of up to 55 mph while buses are stalled in traffic. After the trains reach top speed, it takes them more than the length of a football field to stop. And, in the 54-minute, 22-mile run from downtown Los Angeles to Long Beach, Walden will cross 101 streets, breezing past senior citizen centers, shopping malls, low-income housing projects, parks, swap meets and industrial strips.

Virtually all of the deaths are the result of miscalculations or carelessness by pedestrians or motorists, transit police investigators say. Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials are providing system operators with training on how to be aware of such hazards, but point out that these dangers inherent in an urban system at ground level are often beyond their control.

Critics call the setup a formula for disaster, and the line’s track record bears them out.

47 Deaths in 10 Years

Since the Blue Line began operating in 1990, 47 pedestrians or motorists have lost their lives after being hit by the light-rail train, the result of more than 400 accidents, according to state and local records kept for light-rail systems.

On this day, Robert Johnson, who supervises the training of train operators, is hovering over Walden’s shoulder.

Peering down the track with Walden, it is easy to see the problem: Cars and trucks on both sides of the train head for the same intersection. Kids straddle bicycles, waiting impatiently for the train to pass. People push shopping carts toward the tracks. Commuters stand dangerously close to the tracks as they wait for Walden to stop.

“You see that car coming alongside? What do you think he is doing?” Johnson asks, reciting his training mantra. “Is he accelerating? What do you think he might be doing, trying to turn left?” The car stops. “If the vehicle starts to move an inch, you are on the horn, you are on the brake.”

Johnson, a hard-nosed, veteran train operator who looks out at the world from under an MTA baseball cap, pounds into his students’ heads what is obvious the first time they step into a Blue Line cab: The trains have no steering wheel.

Fixed as they are to rails, trains can’t turn away from an accident. That creates a helpless feeling for operators because if they see someone or something on the tracks ahead of them, all they can do is brake and wait for the impact, Johnson says.

Listen, in the spare language of a police report, to the Blue Line’s William McClendon, who in June was operating a train that struck and killed Troy Well Young, a pedestrian, at 103rd Street and Grandee Avenue in Watts.

“I was traveling 35 to 40 mph when I observed the man walking east along the south sidewalk area,” the 55-year-old train operator said. McClendon said he had been sounding his horn, but Young didn’t turn away. “I began emergency braking. He kept walking. He was looking south. There was nothing else I could do. I turned my head and heard the impact.”

Johnson hopes Walden will finish his career without an accident, but he is less than optimistic. Among other lessons, Walden will learn the phrase “pray for the dead,” a grim mnemonic reminder of the cadence that trainmen use for their warning sequence: two long horn blasts, followed by a short one, then another long one.

“It isn’t a matter of if you have an accident, it is when,” he says matter-of-factly.

So many accidents happen that the Blue Line has claimed more lives over the last five years than the state’s other four light-rail systems combined, according to Public Utilities Commission records. These statistics do not include heavy rail, such as MetroLink or Amtrak trains.

Nationally, the casualties are so high that Los Angeles accounts for a disproportionate share of America’s light-rail accidents, according to the Federal Transit Administration.

Officials seeking to improve the Blue Line’s safety record acknowledge that some problems are not fixable, such as the Blue Line’s location in Los Angeles County’s densely populated urban and industrial core. They say that taking the trains off the streets and creating a grade separation would dramatically help, but assert that there is no money available to elevate the tracks or put them below street level.

Working to Eliminate Casualties

Locked into what now is a mature, 10-year-old system that defies a massive overhaul, the MTA struggles to bring down Blue Line casualties with rigorous training of operators like Walden, aggressive law enforcement, and constant tinkering with fences, horn sounds, signal lights, traffic gates and other safety hardware.

Swing gates, which pedestrians have to pull back, rather than push forward, have been installed at some stations. The sound of the horn has been changed. So-called “T-signals,” which signal train operators, are being replaced because some motorists were confused and thought the T meant turn.

Trials are underway with street barrier gates that block all four lanes of traffic at intersections, rather than the conventional practice of two. More and more video systems are being added to intersections so that scofflaws can be photographed running red lights, tracked down and prosecuted.

MTA executives are also working with Union Pacific, which runs long freight trains parallel to the Blue Line tracks. Accidents are often caused by people trying to get around the freight trains, only to walk or drive into an oncoming Blue Line train.

The MTA has “gone well beyond” the safety requirements of regulatory agencies, said Lou Hubaud, a career MTA executive with responsibility for Blue Line safety. “This agency has gone way out there in reaching to the public to make it safer for them. We have done more than anyone in the country to make grade crossings safer.”

There is some evidence that the steps may be paying off.

In 1998, there were 10 fatalities involving Blue Line trains. This year, there have been four.

But critics say the MTA is not doing enough.

Even four deaths, they say, should be a red flag. During the five-year period from 1994 to the end of 1998, light-rail lines in Sacramento and Santa Clara County reported only two deaths between them to the PUC. Last year, San Francisco’s rail system, despite running more than twice the passenger miles as Los Angeles’ system, had three pedestrian and motor vehicle related deaths, according to commission records.

Similar differences exist nationally, although voluntary reporting to the Federal Transit Administration by cities such as Atlanta, Baltimore, St. Louis and Salt Lake City appears to be less exacting than that required by the PUC.

Critics believe that slowing down the trains and creating more grade separations, meaning raising the tracks above or burying them below street level, would help.

“You need to be looking at grade separations,” said Wendell Cox, a national transportation consultant who was a member of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission from 1977 to 1985 when much of the planning for the Blue Line occurred. “It’s not fair to blame motorists. It’s a terrible cop-out to blame pedestrians or kids, to say they were at fault.”

“Speed equals danger,” said Tom Rubin, former risk management chief for the old Southern California Rapid Transit District, which was merged into the MTA.

“The basic problem is very simple: You don’t put a high-speed rail line through a very dense urban area, such as South-Central Los Angeles and Long Beach, unless you have it absolutely totally grade separated. By that I mean you don’t have crossing streets,” said Rubin, based in Oakland. “Total grade separation would eliminate 90% plus of fatalities and 100% of train-auto collisions.”

Money woes and system upheaval are huge barriers to the kind of massive capital works project that would be required to either bury or elevate the tracks.

Commuters now make 55,000 trips a day on the Blue Line. Because many of them are onetime bus riders who were switched to the trains, shutting down the train for any length of time would create serious problems because some of their old bus lines have been canceled.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, chairwoman of the MTA governing board, agrees with Cox and Rubin that grade separation would help. But she said money is a problem. She pointed to budget problems that brought a premature end to the county’s subway construction program.

“Obviously, if you have over-ground or below-ground rail you’d have fewer accidents,” she said. But, these days, she said, “Either you have no rail or you have it at grade.”

With no major improvements in sight, those who ride or live close to the Blue Line are struggling to cope, sometimes none too pleasantly.

“I heard a thump and then saw a man’s hat fly by the window and I said, ‘Oh, my God, I think we’ve hit someone,’ ” said a longtime Blue Line rider, recalling one experience. A resident of Long Beach, she works at a downtown Los Angeles bank and asked that her name not be used.

Experienced Blue Line riders say accident-caused delays have led them to develop taxicab pools with fellow commuters for shared rides home. They map out alternate bus routes. They know relatives who can pick them up if things get bad enough.

Despite the accidents, there are complaints that the MTA is too slow in moving commuters off stricken trains.

“They have accidents all the time,” said Compton resident Grace Flowers, who also works at a downtown Los Angeles bank. “I don’t blame the MTA, but they should have contingency plans. We can be stuck on this thing two, three hours.”

What seems to strike a personal chord with those familiar with the Blue Line is that many of those who lost their lives or were hit by the train were engaged in commonplace comings and goings.

They were rushing to catch a train. Or hurrying off a platform at the end of a trip, thinking about home. Or they were walking in a daze, perhaps with a little too much liquor in them. A 13-year-old boy lost his life running after a ball.

Masses are still said for Rosa Cebellos, a 66-year-old woman who was the Blue Line’s first fatality, at St. Lawrence Brindisi, a Roman Catholic church in Watts a block from the Blue Line tracks.

Cebellos was on her way to Mass, clutching a prayer book, when she was hit by a train.

Wajeha Bilal, a community activist who works out of a small office in the historic Watts train station at 103rd Street, gets so agitated that she often rushes out to the tracks and pulls people back because they are standing too close to the tracks.

Bilal, part of the Watts economic development effort, said she has been pleading for years with the MTA to have a crossing guard stationed at the intersection to hold back the human tide that surges down 103rd every day.

“We need a crossing guard here very bad. They said they had no budget for it,” said Bilal, standing a few feet from where Troy Young was hit last June.

As if to make her case, elementary-age children, just released from some of the four schools in the area, pour into the 103rd Street corridor.

“You kids, get off those tracks!” she shouts, seeing some of the children scampering along the tracks, playfully picking up stones from the roadbed or trying to balance themselves on the rails.

Danger on the Tracks

Metro Blue Line accidents consistently cause more injuries than California’s other light-rail systems.

Train accident deaths 1994-98
Los Angeles: 20
Sacramento: 1
San Diego: 11
San Francisco: 3*
Santa Clara: 1
* 1994-96 data not available

Train accidents per 100,000 miles
Los Angeles: 1.9
Sacramento: 1.5
San Diego: 1
San Francisco: 0.9
Santa Clara: 1.4

Blue Line Kills 13 Year Old Boy in South LA

13-Year-Old Boy Is Hit, Killed by Blue Line Train

Los Angeles Times
By Rich Connell and Caitlin Liu
July 17, 1999

A 13-year-old boy was killed Friday afternoon in South Los Angeles after he apparently hopped through a row of stopped freight cars and into the path of a Blue Line commuter train.

Gilberto Reynaga was struck by a southbound train at about 4:30 p.m. as he and a friend darted across the side-by-side rail tracks north of Slauson Avenue.

The boy, who had been playing basketball on one side of the tracks, was headed in the direction of his home on the other, witnesses said.

Police said the boys apparently jumped between the cars of a stopped Union Pacific freight train as warning signs sounded.

The boys looked one way when they came from the freight cars, witnesses said, but didn’t realize the commuter train was approaching from the other direction.

“Every day we fear that something like this could happen,” said Mabel Cail, who lives in the victim’s apartment complex next to the rail corridor near Long Beach Avenue. The neighborhood has large numbers of children, she said, who constantly crisscross the freight and passenger tracks. “It’s in a residential area … it would be much better if there [was] an overpass.”

Gilberto, an eighth-grader with several siblings, was described by relatives as an avid ballplayer.

“He loved basketball,” said his sister-in-law, Lillian Salazar. “He was happy, outgoing… . He was a sweet, sweet boy.”

“He was the baby,” said Gilberto’s older brother, Everado.

Passengers on the Blue Line train said they saw the victim’s friend dash away from the train.

“We saw him almost get hit. He was running. He seemed so scared,” said L.P. Tutankhamon, a retired designer from South Central Los Angeles. “We were laughing.”

But the feeling of relief turned to horror when the train made an emergency stop and they realized another child had been hit and dragged along the tracks.

Later, after the body had been removed, a black tennis shoe remained on the tracks. As one of Gilberto’s relatives went to pick it up, investigators told her it had to remain where it was.

Gilberto was the first child on foot killed by a Blue Line train, a Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman said.

Friday’s fatality was the second this year on the Blue Line. The first occurred less than a month ago when a man stepped in front of a train near the Watts station.

Forty-five people have been killed since service began between downtown Los Angeles and Long Beach in 1990, mostly motorists or pedestrians trying to go around barriers, said the MTA’s Gary Wosk.

Fatalities are down slightly this year, Wosk said, partly because of new warning signs and increased distribution of safety literature.

Blue Line trains had to be routed around the accident scene Friday, slowing the evening rush-hour commute for thousands of Blue Line riders.

Blue Line Hits Police Car & Injures 6

6 Injured as Blue Line Train Hits Police Car

Los Angeles Times
June 29, 1999

Six people, including an LAPD officer, suffered minor injuries Monday morning when a Blue Line train crashed into an unmarked police car, authorities said.

The crash occurred about 11 a.m. at 7th Street and Long Beach Boulevard, said Jana Blair of the Long Beach Police Department.

The train operator and four passengers complained of injuries and were examined at a hospital, said Ed Scannel of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The train was held up about an hour, Scannel said.

The Los Angeles police officer was on his way to pick up his partner for training at the LAPD’s Harbor Division, Blair said.

The northbound train was going about 25 mph, Blair said, and the officer indicated he did not see it. But the details of the accident are still unclear, she said.

Blue Line Kills Man at Watts Station

Blue Line Train Kills Pedestrian at Watts Station

Los Angeles Times
June 25, 1999

A pedestrian was killed by a southbound Blue Line train Thursday afternoon as it pulled into the 103rd Street Station in Watts.

The man was hit near 103rd Street and South Grandee Avenue about 2 p.m. and died at the scene, said Jim Wells, a spokesman for the city Fire Department.

The man, who was in his 30s, was not identified by authorities.

“According to witnesses, the gentleman appeared to be somewhat disoriented,” said Robert Calix of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

“He was told by others around the station that the train was approaching. Apparently, he didn’t hear it… . He stepped in front of the train and lost his life.”

Forty-two people have died in car and pedestrian collisions with Blue Line trains since the service began in 1990, including eight this year.

Blue Line Kills Woman in Willowbrook

Woman Walking on Tracks Killed by Train

Los Angeles Times
July 08, 1998

A 46-year-old woman was struck and killed by a Blue Line train Tuesday, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said.

Sylvia Sayles of Los Angeles was walking on the tracks when she was hit by a train shortly before 8 a.m. at Willowbrook Avenue and Imperial Highway, said MTA spokesman Ed Scannell.

The gates were down and the red lights were flashing when she was hit by a southbound train, Scannell said.

County Fire Department paramedics pronounced Sayles dead from massive trauma, he said.

Forty-one people have been killed in car and pedestrian collisions with Blue Line trains since the service began July 1990, including seven fatalities this year, he said.

Man Killed by Blue Line Among 3 Killed on So Cal Tracks In the Same Day

Trains kill 3 pedestrians

The Fresno Bee
May 18, 1998

LOS ANGELES - Trains struck and killed three pedestrians within a 10-hour period in Fontana, Watts and Anaheim, authorities said Sunday.

In the first accident Saturday, a San Bernardino Metrolink commuter train struck and killed a woman who tried to cross in front of it.

In the second accident, a 30-year-old man was struck and killed by a southbound Metro Blue Line commuter train in Watts, said a Los Angeles city fire spokesman.

The third accident occurred about 9:30 p.m. when a transient was struck by a freight train on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad tracks in Anaheim. The man tried, but failed to jump out of the way of the train, authorities said.

Blue Line Kills Woman at Vernon Station

Blue Line Train Kills Woman

Los Angeles Times
By Susan Abram
May 08, 1998

A female pedestrian was struck and killed by a Blue Line commuter train in South Los Angeles on Thursday morning, just 12 hours after a tow truck and another MTA train collided in the area. One man died and 17 were injured in that crash.

The woman, whose name was being held pending notification of next of kin, was hit about 10:30 a.m. by a southbound train traveling about 25 mph as it was approaching the station near Vernon, said LAPD spokeswoman Carol Mitchell.

“She just darted out to go across the street” to try to beat the train, Mitchell said. “The gate was down and all the warning systems appeared to be functioning at that time.”

Later Thursday, the southbound Blue Line was shut down for about 45 minutes while sheriff’s deputies removed a pipe bomb found in an apartment building near the tracks in Long Beach.

Long Beach police said they discovered the device while investigating reports of a “foul odor” emanating from an apartment. Also found in the apartment were a rifle, ammunition, narcotics and drug paraphernalia, police said.

The occupant of the apartment, Michael Plechot, 36, of Long Beach, was detained for questioning, an officer said.

Meanwhile, MTA officials continued their investigation of the fatal crash Wednesday night when a Blue Line train hit a tow truck.

The tow truck driver, whose name was held pending notification of relatives, died early Thursday at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, a hospital representative said.

Two passengers in the tow truck were injured, along with 15 in the train.

The collision occurred about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday near East 115th Street and Wilmington Avenue, said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey. A total of 30 city firefighters were sent to the scene, where Humphrey said the tow truck was “mangled.”

MTA spokesman Ed Scannell said the train was approaching a station at Imperial Highway and Wilmington Avenue.

The tow truck appeared to have crossed the tracks after making an illegal left turn on 114th Street, and headed in the wrong direction, Scannell said.

“That intersection is quite unusual because Wilmington crosses the track but not at a right angle,” Scannell said. “People approaching the tracks on those streets do not have access to the tracks,” he said, but there is a “big red sign that says ‘Do Not Enter.’ ”

Scannell said there have been 37 fatalities on the Blue Line tracks since 1990. MTA officials have cited about 5,000 people since 1995 for illegally crossing the tracks when the signals are displayed.

Blue Line Hits Tow Truck Kills 1 Injures 15

15 Hurt, 3 Critically, as Truck and Train Collide in Watts

Los Angeles Times
May 07, 1998

About 15 people were injured, three of them critically, when a Metro Blue Line train and a tow truck collided in Watts late Wednesday, authorities said.

The critically injured victims were the tow truck driver and two passengers, said Jim Wells, a spokesman for the city Fire Department. They were transported to local hospitals.

“The injuries to the passengers on the train appear to be minor in nature at this point,” Wells said.

The crash occurred about 10:30 p.m. near East 115th Street and Wilmington Avenue, he said.

The train was heading south when it collided with the truck, Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Ed Scannell said. The left side of the truck was crushed.

About 10 ambulances responded to the accident site. The cause of the crash was under investigation.

The Metro Blue Line runs between downtown Los Angeles and Long Beach, carrying about 50,000 passengers a day.

(One of the critically injured reportedly died)

Blue Line at 5 mph Traps Compton Motorist in Wreckage

Driver Hospitalized in Crash With Train
Blue Line: Man is trapped in wreck for two hours after driving around crossing barriers

Los Angeles Times
By Doug Shuit
December 11, 1997

Rescuers worked for nearly two hours Wednesday to free a motorist trapped in the crumpled wreckage of his auto after it was hit by a Blue Line train as he tried to beat it through an intersection in Compton, authorities said.

The Los Angeles-bound commuter train was traveling at 5 mph when it struck a compact car driven by Ricardo Gonzalez, 25, of Lynwood, dragging the vehicle about 20 feet before stopping near a rail station at Compton Boulevard and Willowbrook Avenue. The auto came to rest wedged between the train and a train signal pole.

The wreckage was so tangled that Compton firefighters had to struggle for almost two hours to free Gonzalez after the 3:59 p.m. accident. He was immobile for a time, but could communicate with firefighters, who used hydraulic tools to cut him free.

Police said Gonzalez, who was taken to Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, suffered fractured legs in the accident. One of the estimated 200 passengers aboard the Blue Line train was slightly injured.

Gonzalez was headed west on Compton when he drove around the crossing barriers and was hit by the commuter train, authorities said.

"This accident didn't need to occur," Compton Police Capt. Steven Roller said, noting that the warning lights at the intersection were in working order.

Jesse J. Diaz, a manager with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the Blue Line, said: "Everybody has to understand that trains do not stop quickly, even at a slow rate of speed. Cars are no match for these trains."

An MTA spokeswoman said the situation was complicated by a Union Pacific freight train that was partially blocking the intersection at the time the Blue Line train approached. Several motorists grew impatient with the delay caused by the freight train and drove around the crossing barriers, MTA spokeswoman Marion MacKenzie said.

Gonzalez also tried to do this, but was hit by the commuter train, she said.

The accident not only snarled vehicular traffic in the area but also disrupted rail traffic, delaying Blue Line trains for several hours. MTA officials estimated that the train sustained $100,000 in damage.

Roller said Gonzalez could be cited for going into the intersection after the crossing barriers were lowered. A fine could range as high as $300.

Times staff writer George Ramos contributed to this story.

Blue Line Hits Two in Same Day

L.A. Train Accidents Injure 2

Sacramento Bee
July 11, 1995

STATE DIGEST

A pedestrian and motorist were injured in accidents involving Metro Blue Line commuter trains Monday, authorities said.

The pedestrian was identified only as a woman, about 60, who was in serious to critical condition after being struck by a Blue Line train, said Fire Department spokesman Jim Wells.

She was hospitalized at California Medical Center.

Earlier, a Blue Line train collided with a car that turned in front of it, police said.

The man was in critical but stable condition at County-USC Medical Center after surgery, said spokesman Harvey Kern.

Blue Line Kills Man in South LA

Blue Line Train Kills Pedestrian

Los Angeles Times
February 28, 1994

LOS ANGELES - A 53-year-old man was killed Sunday when he ignored a safety gate and flashing lights in South-Central Los Angeles and walked in front of a southbound Blue Line train at 55th Street and Long Beach Avenue, police said.

Samouem Long was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, which occurred about 12:20 p.m. just north of the Slauson Avenue station. The gates, warning lights and bells at the crossing were operating properly, said Bill Heard, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Blue Line Kills 2 Year Old, 18 Year Old & Critically Injures 3 Children

2 Killed, 5 Hurt When Blue Line Train Hits Auto Accident
Crash claims lives of a young child and the driver, who apparently went around lowered crossing gates. Other victims are pried from wreckage.

Los Angeles Times
By Nieson Himmel & Jean Merl
November 17, 1993

Two people died and at least seven others were injured Tuesday night when a Blue Line train struck a car that apparently had driven around lowered crossing gates in Willowbrook, authorities said.

The crash occurred just before 9 p.m. near Willowbrook Avenue and 124th Street, a county Fire Department official said.

Killed were an 18-year-old woman, who was driving the car, and a child believed to be between 2 and 3. The five others in the car-three children and two adults-were critically injured. All had to be pried from the wreckage. The driver died at the scene and the child at a hospital, the California Highway Patrol said.

At least one person on the train complained of injuries, the CHP said. It could not be immediately determined whether they were serious.

Eyewitness Cesar Martinez said he heard the train "honk twice real loud. Then I saw this car wheeling around the gate, and the train hit it right in the middle. The car spun around.

"I rushed over and it looked like a massacre. I grabbed a child out of the car and a (deputy) handed me another."

Greg Davy, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the Blue Line, said the northbound commuter train was traveling at 30 m.p.h. when the crash occurred. It rolled another 200 feet down the track before the operator could bring the 92,000-pound train to a stop.

Since it began operating in July, 1990, the Blue Line has been plagued with accidents, prompting authorities to step up security and to mount a campaign to keep vehicles from driving around crossing gates.

Tuesday night's collision raised the number of fatalities in Blue Line accidents to 16.

The previous fatal accident also was in Willowbrook. In May, two men in a stolen car drove onto the tracks in the path of an oncoming train and were killed.

Blue Line Accident in Willowbrook

2 Men in Stolen Car Die in Collision With Train

Los Angeles Times
Nieson Himmel
May 19, 1993

LOS ANGELES - Two men in a stolen car were killed and four passengers on a Blue Line train suffered minor injuries Tuesday when the car went past a lowered crossing gate and collided with the train in Willowbrook, officials said.

County fire officials said one man died at the scene and the second, who had to be extricated with emergency equipment, died at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center. The engine of the northbound commuter train had to be lifted off the stolen blue car before the man could be removed.

"The car was dragged 300 feet after the impact," said Charlotte Kramer, supervising dispatcher for the Fire Department. "The chief at the scene told us the car had been stolen."

The dead men were said to be in their mid-20s; no further identification was available Tuesday night.

About 100 people were aboard the two-car train. Northbound Blue Line trains were delayed for half an hour, then resumed their 22-mile runs on the second track after the 7:30 p.m. crash at Stockwell Street and Willowbrook Avenue.

The injured passengers were treated at the medical center and released.

Since it began operating in July, 1990, the Blue Line has been plagued by accidents resulting from cars being driven around crossing barriers. As of January, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority had counted 148 Blue Line accidents, with 12 fatalities: nine motorists and three pedestrians.

The Trauma of Train Operators

Unwilling Agents of Death Rail
Engineers are nearly always blameless, and they know that fatalities are a price of the Southland's growing transit network. But still the tragedies are impossible to forget.

Los Angeles Times
By Hugo Martin and Nora Zamichow
February 17, 1993

Los Angeles, CA - Danny O'Connell remembers clearly the astonished face of the man who died at his hands four years ago.

O'Connell had just begun training to become a locomotive engineer-following in the footsteps of his grandfather and great-grandfather-when a motorist slipped around a lowered crossing gate in front of the speeding train O'Connell was operating.

"I was the last person he saw," said O'Connell, 32, of Yucaipa. "The expression on his face was so clear. I'll never forget it."

As an engineer for Metrolink, O'Connell relives the incident whenever one of Los Angeles' new commuter trains is involved in a fatal accident. That has been five times since the service began in October, most recently on Feb. 3 when a man sitting on the tracks in Sun Valley was hit by a train en route to Santa Clarita.

Across town, the light-rail Metro Blue Line between Long Beach and downtown Los Angeles has had 148 accidents, resulting in 12 deaths and numerous injuries, since it opened in July, 1990.

The accidents have reinforced for O'Connell and the 78 other Metrolink engineers and 63 Blue Line operators that deaths and injuries are as much a part of their job as mechanical glitches, long hours and kids who throw rocks at the cab or put furniture on the tracks.

The 140-mile Metrolink commuter system and the 22-mile Blue Line are segments of a 400-mile web of light- and heavy-rail lines that eventually will stretch from Ventura to San Diego to the Inland Empire.

As the system continues to expand through residential neighborhoods and commercial areas, the potential for accidents increases. And for every death or injury, the men and women at the throttles must cope with trauma, guilt, anger and a slew of other psychological and physical reactions.

"A lot of people don't think how the engineer feels-what kind of nightmares he has," said Tom Stokes, an engineer who was involved in seven non-fatal train accidents before he came to work for Metrolink. "In my mind I can see the faces of everybody I've hit."

Although they cannot cite precise figures or studies, rail authorities-including the Federal Railroad Administration-say that over the course of a career a locomotive engineer may be involved in as many as half a dozen deaths on the tracks.

In most of the accidents, the engineers or operators are found innocent of wrongdoing, particularly because they have little control once the trains get up to speed. Most often the deaths and injuries result from a motorist or pedestrian trying to outrun a speeding train and misjudging the distance or speed.

Each year, the average American engineer has a 1 in 6 chance of being involved in an accident, with a 1 in 15 chance that it will result in injury and a 1 in 60 chance that it will cause death, according to estimates by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, an international union based in Cleveland.

Although Blue Line operators are not classified as engineers because they work on a light-rail system, their chance of being involved in an accident is nearly 100% a year, if the current trend holds, with a 1 in 4.5 chance that it will result in a death.

The chance that an engineer will be involved in a fatal accident is higher than the chance that a police officer will be involved in a shooting. Last year, the Los Angeles Police Department marked a 10-year high for officer-involved shootings, about 10 per 1,000 officers, of which about a third were fatal. During the same year, locomotive engineers averaged 17 fatalities per 1,000 engineers, according to the union's statistics.

And like police officers after shootings, engineers say, they have etched in their memory every injury and death their trains have caused.

Some cope through black humor. Metrolink engineers often talk about an Amtrak engineer they say has been involved in 17 fatalities and joke about his macabre trophy: a coffee mug with 17 stick figures marked on the side.

"It's sick," agreed O'Connell. But, he said, "you become callous about it" because "you can't let it get to you."

One of the four engineers involved in fatal Metrolink accidents is Chris Younger. He'd had several accidents over 2 1/2 years as an engineer, but never one that resulted in a death until the night of Jan. 22.

That was when Eric Pola, 23, of Encino dashed in front of Younger's train as he ran to catch up with two friends sneaking into a drive-in movie in Chatsworth. Pola tripped on the tracks and Younger's 60 m.p.h. juggernaut hurled his body about 200 feet.

Although, given the odds, Younger had expected his train to kill somebody sooner or later, he said that after the accident he avoided looking at the body.

"I got off the engine and walked forward so I wouldn't see anything," he said. "I had to cool off for a minute."

He said he went home and concentrated on moving into his new house.

"Knowing it wasn't my fault, it still doesn't make it an easy experience," he said.

Ronnie Bean, a Blue Line operator, was in a crash last spring. He still has dreams and flashbacks.

At 6:20 a.m. on May 26, Bean was traveling south when a van slipped around a crossing barrier. Bean, 45, leaned on the horn and hit the emergency brake. "That's all you can do," he said. He thought he was going to die in the wreck, which he could see coming.

The train punched into the middle of the van on the passenger side. "It just literally wrapped around the front of the train," Bean said. "I thought it was going to crush the whole front end of the train. I thought, `This is it.' "

The van driver hurtled through the van's windshield and lay crumpled and bleeding on the ground. Although the driver survived, Bean was overwhelmed by a sense of powerlessness.

"After impact, you just sit there, that's what makes you a victim-you are a victim of their negligence," Bean said. "There's a helplessness. You can't divert the train, you can't steer around the van. . . . You remain a victim of things like this for a long time. It just eases off after a while."

Another Blue Line operator, Eugene Keyes, hit a pickup truck making a left turn in front of his train, which was traveling at 35 m.p.h on a Saturday morning last year.

"This one guy, it was just me and him," said Keyes, shaking his head. "His eyes just got huge. He had this look like `I'm going to die'. . . . I hit him. All I saw was his eyes-the fear."

The train smashed into the truck's rear wheel. Although the truck was damaged, the driver slowly drove away.

Unlike police officers, who are usually taken off the streets for a time after a shooting, Metrolink engineers and Blue Line operators are not required to take time off after an accident. They are, however, offered counseling-by a psychiatrist for Blue Line operators and employee counselors for Metrolink engineers.

But most engineers say a train accident is an experience that only other engineers can understand, and thus they often turn to each other for support.

"No one understands better than someone who has gone through it," said Steve FitzGerald, a spokesman for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. He said most turn to a spouse or another engineer, and a few leave the railroad industry altogether.

Metrolink engineer Ken Clanahan had the misfortune of being at the controls in two fatal Metrolink accidents.

On Nov. 25, Clanahan's train, traveling 77 m.p.h., hit a dump truck at an unmarked crossing in Pacoima. The driver, Jaime Farias, 37, was pronounced dead at the scene.

In the second accident, Apolinar Arellano, 32, of Sun Valley, was struck Feb. 3 as he sat on the tracks near San Fernando Road in Sun Valley. Clanahan reported seeing five men on the tracks, apparently drinking alcohol. When he blew the train whistle, four stepped off the tracks but Arellano remained.

Clanahan declined to be interviewed, but at the Metrolink maintenance yard the day after his latest accident, he somberly described the incident to fellow engineers and Metrolink conductors, recounting that the body was thrown so far from the tracks that it was some time before it was found under a pickup truck 250 feet away.

The other engineers nodded and offered a sympathetic ear. He thanked them quietly and walked off.

Stokes, an engineer for nine years, said most engineers feel more anger than sympathy for pedestrians and motorists who cross in front of a speeding train.

"The people who run the gates do not have the right to jeopardize my life and the life of my passengers," he said.

But the greatest difficulty, engineers say, is coping with the feeling of helplessness that comes at the time of the accident. They point out that an engineer can do little to avoid pulverizing a motorist or pedestrian who winds up on the tracks in front of a speeding train. A 6,000-ton train traveling 60 m.p.h takes up to 1 1/2 miles to come to a stop, they say.

"If someone wants to cross a track in front of a train and they misjudge the timing, there is nothing the engineer can do except watch the scene unfold," FitzGerald said.

James High, a psychiatrist who has worked with several Blue Line operators involved in traumatic accidents, said the aftereffects include sleeplessness, extreme agitation, withdrawal and flashbacks of the crash.

Physical afflictions may include stomach problems, headaches, sweaty palms, heart palpitations and sore muscles, he said.

Most often the operators will continue to relive the accident to try to figure out what they could have done differently, he said.

"One factor that makes something more damaging is the fact that it happens out of our control and in effect bursts the bubble of believing that we have control of our lives," he said.

O'Connell agreed: "Have you ever hit a dog while driving a car?" he asked. "That is the helpless feeling you get when you hit someone. Then you think about what you hit."

Blue Line at 10 mph Kills Elderly Couple

2 Killed as Car Goes Through Traffic Signal and Collides With Blue Line Train

Los Angeles Times
December 18, 1992

Two people were killed Thursday night when their car collided with a Blue Line commuter train in Long Beach, authorities said.

RTD spokesman Jim Smart said the accident occurred about 7 p.m. when the car failed to stop at a traffic signal and was struck by the train as it approached a station near 1st Street and Pine Avenue.

Smart said the victims, whose identities were not immediately available, were an elderly man and woman. The male driver of the car was pronounced dead at St. Mary's Hospital in Long Beach. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene, he said.

Authorities said the train had slowed to 10 m.p.h. in preparation for a stop at the Transit Mall Station, near the southern terminus of the commuter line. The impact crushed the car against the station platform, RTD officials said.

Blue Line Kills 21 Year Old

Driver Killed, Passenger Injured in Car Hit by Blue Line Train

Los Angeles Times
By David Ferrell
September 13, 1992

One man was killed and another critically injured when a car swerved around a closed crossing gate and was crushed by an oncoming Metro Blue Line train Saturday in South Los Angeles, authorities said.

Vina Kim, 21, whose car sped around a crossing gate at 55th Street and Long Beach Avenue West, was killed as the southbound train knocked his 1984 Nissan into a metal power pole, witnesses and family members said.

The passenger in the car, whose name was not immediately available, had to be removed from the crushed car by firefighters and was reported in critical condition at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.

The incident, shortly after 3 p.m., was believed to be the seventh fatal accident involving the 22-mile Blue Line route since it opened in July, 1990. Most of the fatalities, according to police, have involved drivers or pedestrians ignoring warning signs or crossing gates.

Heng Loeum, 19, a friend of Kim's who had been following in a separate car, said Kim's car was the second of three traveling in a caravan south on Long Beach Avenue West, a street running parallel to the Blue Line tracks, just before the accident.

As the cars reached a stop sign before turning east across the tracks onto 55th Street, Loeum said, two northbound trains were approaching from ahead of them. When the first train passed, the driver in the lead automobile skirted the closed crossing gate and made the left turn before the second train arrived. Kim, thinking he could make the same turn ahead of the northbound train, also drove around the closed gate, Loeum said.

Apparently, Kim did not see or hear the southbound Blue Line train that was roaring up from behind, Loeum said. That train struck Kim's car and it hurtled about 40 yards off the tracks and into the power pole, where it caught fire.

"Even me, I didn't see the train coming from the left . . . I didn't hear it," Loeum said. "If (Kim) had passed (through the intersection safely), I would have gone."

Loeum said he pulled over and made unsuccessful attempts to free the driver and passenger from the twisted wreckage before running to telephone police.

Before police arrived, Loeum said, about 15 bystanders attempted to help those in the car.

Blue Line Kills 2 in Compton Accident that Sheared a Car in Half

Blue Line Section Reopens After Fatal Weekend Crash

Los Angeles Times
January 20, 1992

A three-mile stretch of the Metro Blue Line was reopened Sunday evening, after a weekend collision in Compton that derailed a northbound train and sheared a car in half, killing its passenger, officials said.

Service was restored shortly after 7 p.m., said Greg Davy, Southern California Rapid Transit District spokesman. He said trains will have to slow down at the accident site because of a missing power pole. Otherwise, the schedule will not be affected, he said.

On Sunday, Blue Line passengers were shuttled by bus from Del Amo Boulevard to Imperial Highway, adding about 20 minutes to their travel time, an RTD spokesman said.

Police said Saturday's collision occurred when Johnny Carl Hagler, 47, of Long Beach tried to speed around a crossing gate to beat the train. Hagler was in serious condition Sunday at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center with multiple fractures.

His 43-year-old passenger, a Lynwood woman whose name was withheld pending notification of relatives, was killed instantly, officials said. One of the 53 passengers aboard the Blue Line suffered minor injuries.

Compton Police Sgt. William Wallace said Sunday that investigators are awaiting results of blood tests performed after the accident to determine if Hagler was intoxicated. If so, Hagler could face charges of felony drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter, Wallace said.



1 Dead, 2 Injured in Crash of Car, Blue Line Train

Los Angeles Times
By Greg Krikorian and Edmund Newton
January 19, 1992

A Metro Blue Line train derailed in Compton on Saturday afternoon after colliding with a car that tried to speed around a crossing gate, authorities said. The collision sheared the car in half, killing its passenger and critically injuring its driver.

Only one of the 53 passengers aboard the northbound train was hurt and police described her injuries as minor.

Authorities said the 3:36 p.m. accident occurred when a 1980 Chevrolet Chevette traveling east on Manville Street reached the grade crossing at Willowbrook Avenue at the same time as a northbound Blue Line train moving at 55 m.p.h.

Although the crossing gates were down, the driver of the car started to cross the tracks, according to Compton Police Sgt. William Wallace. The train hit the car, dragging it 150 feet.

The car was torn apart as it was pulled along, leaving part of its drivetrain next to the tracks and pieces of metal strewn to the sides. A ball of crumpled metal lay at the front of the train, where the first of two rail cars jumped the tracks, blocking the southbound line.

The unidentified male driver and female passenger were ejected on impact, Wallace said, and were taken by Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedics to Long Beach Memorial Hospital. There, the woman, believed to be about 35, was pronounced dead and her male companion, said to be about 40, was listed in critical condition with numerous fractures and internal injuries.

No charges were filed against the driver, but Wallace said an investigation of the accident is under way. "We have information that the driver was possibly under the influence of alcohol and if that is substantiated, appropriate charges will be filed," he said.

Since the Blue Line opened in July, 1990, its light-rail trains have been involved in 37 collisions and six deaths. This was the first time one of the Long Beach-to-Los Angeles trains derailed, a spokesman for the commuter line said.

"Unfortunately, all of the fatalities have involved people who were attempting to get around the crossing gates as a train approached," RTD spokesman Jim Smart said.

After Saturday's accident, the shaken passengers were held for interviews by authorities only a few feet from the wreckage of the car.

"It felt like an earthquake," said Charles Smith, 16, of Long Beach, who was riding in the second car, where several passengers described a scene of panic after the crash.

Rhonda McCurthon, 15, of Lynwood and her friend Andrea Simpson, 16, of Los Angeles said they and other passengers in the train's second car rushed for the emergency doors after the crash. "Everyone was scared," Simpson said.

But two passengers in the first rail car that struck the vehicle described a different scene. Jobie Gayer, 38, of Wilmington and Marisa DeSimone, 28, of Santa Monica said they and others remained calm after being reassured by the train's conductor, Mike Martinez, that "everything was OK."

After the crash, they said, Martinez ran to aid the two people in the car.

Gayer and DeSimone said this was their first trip on the Blue Line. "We decided we should take a trip on it," DeSimone said.

The four law enforcement agencies that patrol along the Blue Line's 22-mile route-the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and police from Los Angeles, Compton and Long Beach-have engaged in a high-profile safety campaign to discourage motorists from trying to beat the trains at grade crossings.

The trains often reach speeds of 55 m.p.h., authorities say.

After the accident, a three-mile stretch of the Blue Line from Del Amo Boulevard to Imperial Highway was shut down. Passengers were transported around the affected area by bus.

RTD spokesman Bill Heard said late Saturday that officials hope to have the closed stretch of the Blue Line reopened for service by noon today. In the meantime, he said, RTD will use buses to transfer passengers through the area.

Blue Line Injures Motorist at Central

Two Transit Accidents Leave One Dead, Five Injured

Los Angeles Times
By Nieson Himmel
April 19, 1991

An RTD bus and a Metro Rail Blue Line train, also operated by the transit authority, were involved in separate accidents in Los Angeles on Thursday, leaving one man dead and five people injured-two critically, authorities said.

The fatality occurred when a car carrying five people spun out of control near Crenshaw and Pico boulevards and slammed into the bus at 4 p.m., fire officials said.

A passenger in the car was dead at the scene and two other occupants of the vehicle were taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where they were in critical condition, a spokesman for the Fire Department said.

Two others in the car were examined at the scene and released, the spokesman said.

In the second accident, a car made a left turn in front of the Blue Line train at Washington Boulevard and Central Avenue just south of downtown Los Angeles at 4:30 p.m., RTD officials said.

The car's driver suffered minor injuries and was treated at the scene by paramedics, said RTD spokeswoman Jennifer Elliott.

Two passengers on the commuter train also complained of minor injuries, she said.

None of the victims in either incident was identified by authorities.

Blue Line Hits Compton Woman & Puts Her in Critical Condition

Blue Line Strikes Auto, Critically Injuring Driver

Los Angeles Times
January 16, 1991

A Metro Blue Line train collided with a small foreign car Tuesday, critically injuring a 38-year-old motorist who police say "drove around safety gates" at a Compton intersection.

The driver, Sherril McDowell, suffered major head, chest and rib cage injuries and her Volkswagen bug was crushed, Compton Police Lt. Joseph Flores said. She was taken to Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center for treatment.

McDowell was driving west on Alondra Boulevard approaching Willowbrook Avenue shortly before noon when she drove around railroad gates and into the path of the train, which was heading south about 40 m.p.h., Flores said.

The accident is thought to be the 35th involving the Blue Line since it began operating on July 14, a Rapid Transit District spokeswoman said.

Blue Line Kills 4 Year Old and Mother, 12 Hours After Injuring 4 Others

4 Hurt in Latest Blue Line Crash

Los Angeles Times
October 25, 1990

Los Angeles, CA - Four people in a car making a left turn were injured in a collision with a Blue Line train today, less than 12 hours after a mother and her son were killed in another accident along the Los Angeles-to-Long Beach line.

The latest accident occurred about 8:10 a.m. in Long Beach at Burnett Street and Long Beach Boulevard after the driver of the car turned into the southbound train three blocks south of the Willow Station, said Rick Jager, a spokesman for the Southern California Rapid Transit District.

In the earlier incident, Graciela Marinero, 26, of Los Angeles, and her 4-year-old son, Willie Torres, were killed about 8:45 p.m. Wednesday when their car was struck by a Blue Line train at a South-Central Los Angeles intersection.

The victims in today's collision were taken to Long Beach Memorial Hospital, Jager said. A hospital spokesman said the four-all Cambodians-suffered minor injuries.

Mother of 11 Walking to Church is First Killed by Blue Line

Blue Line Train Kills Woman, 66, Crossing Tracks Accident
Mother of 11 becomes first fatality since new commuter light rail line opened in July

Los Angeles Times
By Bettina Boxall

September 21, 1990

A Watts woman became the first fatality on the new light rail line between Los Angeles and Long Beach when she was struck by a train Wednesday evening while crossing the tracks at an intersection within sight of her house.

Rosa Ceballos, 66, was on her way to church at about 5:30 p.m. when she was hit head-on by a southbound, Blue Line train traveling at full speed through the crossing at Century Boulevard and South Graham Avenue, authorities said.

Witnesses gave conflicting accounts of the accident, some insisting the warning lights and gates were not operating when the train entered the intersection and others saying they were.

"She walked right into the train. The arms were down. The red lights were blinking," said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Sgt. Sharon Madison, who was on the train as part of a routine security patrol.

Madison emphatically dismissed reports that the line's warning signals had not worked as they should.

"That's not true," she said. "I don't know if she didn't hear it. I don't know if she didn't see it or saw it and panicked.

"We were passing Century Boulevard," the sergeant continued. "The train was beginning to brake and we didn't know why. The driver was laying on the horn. We looked out the window to see what the problem was and I saw her (the victim) bouncing along the train."

The train stopped just beyond the intersection and Madison said she ran back to find Ceballos on top of the tracks.

The mother of 11, Ceballos died a short time later at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, according to a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, which built the 19-mile-long line.

The accident-which disrupted service for about 45 minutes-was the most serious on the line since it opened with much fanfare in July.

"This just absolutely stunned us," said Stephanie Brady, the commission's media relations director. "I don't understand why she didn't heed the warning signs. We're confident we made every possible allowance-noise, lights, horns-to warn of coming trains."

Brady said there have been a few minor brushes between cars and trains since the system got under way. A teen-ager lost several toes while playing a game of "dare" with a train near downtown Los Angeles in late July.

Wednesday's fatality will be investigated by both Los Angeles police and the Southern California Rapid Transit District, which operates the system.

Ceballos, who attended church almost daily, lived with one of her children in the 9900 block of South Graham Avenue just a few feet behind another family house that faces the light rail tracks. As twilight fell Wednesday, family members stood in the dusty front yard, tears wetting their faces.

"A little boy, he told me, your mother is over there," said one of Ceballos' sons, Magdaleno Barrientos. He went to the tracks to find out what happened. "And they (authorities) say, `Stay over there.' "

A granddaughter said that Ceballos had neither hearing nor sight problems.

Several people who said they saw the accident maintained that the warning gates lining both sides of the crossing did not come down until after the train stopped.

"The gates weren't down. The horns weren't blowing at all," said Clara Domingo, who was getting into her car when Ceballos was struck nearby.

But on the other side of the tracks, Manuel Jaramillio, a security guard at an apartment complex, backed up Madison's account.

"The gates were down. The lights were going. The driver was blowing his horn. I was wondering if she was going to take that chance," said Jaramillio, who regularly watches the sleek new cars as they whisk between Los Angeles and Long Beach at 55 m.p.h.

Jaramillio said he often sees pedestrians take risks at the crossing.

"They like to play tag, it seems," he said.

While wooden gates block the path of cars when a train passes through the Century and Graham intersection, there is room for pedestrians to walk by the gates and past warning lights and bells onto the four tracks, which carry both freight trains and the Blue Line cars.

Blue Line Takes Teenagers Toes

Teen Plays 'Dare,' Loses Toes to Blue Line Train Transit
This first major injury associated with the new commuter service, which today will start charging passengers $1.10 for a one-way ride.

Los Angeles Times
By George Ramos
August 1, 1990

Los Angeles, CA - As officials prepared for today's $1.10 fare startup on the Blue Line, a teen-ager became the first person to receive a major injury associated with the light rail service when he lost several toes while playing a game of "dare" with a train near downtown Los Angeles.

RTD officials said Alejandro Hernandez, 13, of Los Angeles, and four friends were running next to a train near the Pico-Flower station Monday night, apparently daring one another to jump and catch a railing bar on a Blue Line car and then jump off. Hernandez, however, slipped and his left foot became caught under the train's wheels.

"He lost several of his toes," said Andrea Greene, a spokeswoman for the Southern California Rapid Transit District.

The train's operator and passengers were unaware of the mishap as the trolley proceeded south on Flower Street, Greene added.

The youth was taken to County-USC Medical Center, where he was in fair and stable condition Tuesday, hospital officials said.

Greene said that while RTD officials regret the accident, they believe that even the most stringent safety measures cannot prevent similar incidents.

"We're doing all that we can," she said, "but this has been going on for decades-boys playing with trains. And who's going to win? Obviously, the train is going to win."

The incident added fuel to arguments from some critics that there are not enough safety precautions along the 22-mile line from Long Beach to Los Angeles.

The head of the RTD bus drivers union said he reminded transit authorities this year that many youngsters play near the line's Pico-Flower station.

"We told them something ought to be done about that," said Earl Clark, general chairman of the United Transportation Union.

He also reiterated fears that unguarded tracks along Washington Boulevard on the southern edge of downtown could lead to accidents. Clark said RTD and state officials responded vaguely that they were looking into several safety concerns along the route.

Transit officials, citing the safety measures in the $11-million contract with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to provide security on the Blue Line, said they are generally satisfied with efforts to ensure passengers' well-being.

But what can authorities do with playful youngsters who want to outsmart a Blue Line train?

"If we see that type of activity, we will attempt to prevent it," a sheriff's spokesman said.

The trains have been operating free of charge since they began service July 14. One-way fares of $1.10 will begin this morning.