Crime & Safety

Can Elevated Railroad Tracks Prevent More Accidents?

Monday's apparent suicide raises the question of whether a grade-separation project can improve safety.

After Monday's apparent suicide by a man who was struck and killed by a freight train in downtown, you can't help but wonder what if.

If the grade separation project that is slated to start construction later this month had been built already, could it have prevented this tragedy?

One of the main reasons the project was conceived was because of the number of accidents that have occurred near the intersection of Monday's accident.

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San Bruno Patch asked Councilman Ken Ibarra, who, along with Mayor Jim Ruane, has sat on the committee for the Caltrain project, and Caltrain spokeswoman Christine Dunn for their thoughts on the issue.

Councilman Ken Ibarra

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Ibarra said that since he was elected to the City Council in 1996, he has been committed to the safety of the city's rail crossings. During the late 1990s, he said, the council focused on improving traffic and safety at San Mateo, Huntington and San Bruno avenues.

"We soon learned that our grade crossing was among the top five of the most unsafe crossings in California," he said.

In 2000, he and Ruane became part of a Caltrain subcommittee whose job it was to find the best solution for the railroad crossings. It became evident, Ibarra said, that the safest solution would be a grade separation that would elevate the tracks above traffic and create a train overpass.

"Fortunately or unfortunately, there was no other option because we had just experienced the construction of the BART line and it was underground through most of San Bruno," he said. "The only place was up."

Despite the recent accident, Ibarra said he looks forward to the completion of the grade-separation project. As far as whether a grade separation would have prevented Monday's incident, however, Ibarra said it probably wouldn't have. 

"The grade separation will prevent accidents," he said. "Accidents occur when people and cars cross paths with trains. But the overall design of the grade separation will also improve vehicular and pedestrian circulation in the area."

Christine Dunn

Dunn said it was unfortunate that another apparent suicide occurred on Caltrain tracks. But it does reinforce the fact that the safest kind of grade crossing is one that is elevated from the street, she said.

An elevated track improves safety, reduces congestion and benefits the environment, she said. This has been a key factor in moving the grade-separation project forward, she said, because Caltrain last year experienced its second-highest number of suicides in a year, with 15.

When asked how effective an elevated grade crossing could be at preventing tragic accidents, Dunn pointed to the grade-separation projects  in Belmont and San Carlos as examples.

She said since those projects have been completed, there have been no accidents and no one has died at the crossings. This is attributed to the fact that, with the tracks above street-level, they are much less accessible to people, she said. Each crossing also has better fencing, she added.

"The (San Bruno) project is surely needed," Dunn said. "This kind of incident just points out the need even more in the area."


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