KENT, Wash. — Russ Schafer and his dog Mickie stopped alongside the railroad tracks in downtown Kent yesterday, part of a new, aggressive effort by one railroad company to make its tracks safer, the South County Journal reports.
Their job: nab anyone who trespasses on Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railroad Company property and cite them for trespassing. No exceptions; no excuses.
Schafer, a senior agent for BNSF, and his partner are part of the company’s new Zero Tolerance policy on trespassers along the Everett to Tacoma corridor, the most dangerous section of the company’s trackage in the state.
The company is using everything from patrol cars, canine units and even night vision scopes to spot scofflaws who persist in walking on tracks, trestles and any other company property. Special agents will be working the tracks around the clock, seven days a week.
Agents will be aboard special trains to spot both trespassers and motorists violating crossing signals at intersections.
“We are not implementing this to be corporate bullies,” BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas said yesterday in announcing the emphasis patrols. “We are looking out for the public’s safety.”
Melonas pointed that 11 of the 17 pedestrian fatalities on all railroad tracks in the state during 2001 occurred on the Everett-Tacoma stretch of track that runs through Kent, Renton and Auburn: four in Seattle, three in Puyallup, one in Mukilteo, one in Edmonds, one in Sumner and one in Everett.
So far this year there have been three pedestrian fatalities statewide: one in Seattle, one in Puyallup and one in Bellingham.
“With the good weather we are beginning the most aggressive anti-trespassing enforcement that this area has ever seen,” Melonas said. “The company will issue more citations than have ever occurred in the history of the railroad in this area.”
Not only are enforcement units working the problem, he said all BNSF employees will be on the lookout for trespassers. Using radios, they will be able to dispatch railroad police to a problem area.
Melonas said that last year railroad agents contacted 2,000 people. This year they expect to double that number.
Schafer said his job is safety and education, “to encourage the public not to utilize tracks as a walk path. It’s similar to I-5. You don’t see many people walking there.”
Most people he contacts on the tracks, he said, are aware they are trespassing and are apologetic. Getting a misdemeanor citation, however, can cost a person $250. Agents write them through local district courts.
Schafer is a former Ward County Sheriff’s deputy who has been with BNSF for 11 years. He is certified as a police officer both by the state and the federal government. Mickie has been with him seven of those years.
He said Mickie, a 10-year-old female German shepherd, is basically a tool to locate everything from humans to cellphones lost by employees. Mickie is not there to chase down trespassers, he said.
Through out BNSF’s 33,000-mile system in 26 states and two Canadian provinces, special agents last year made 3,765 arrests of which 2,075 were for trespassing. Arrests figures were not available for the Tacoma to Everett corridor.
Melonas said residents can expect more trains on the corridor.
At Auburn, two main BNSF lines converge: the Stampede Pass route goes east and the I-5 corridor runs south to Portland. Melonas said there are as many as 50 freight trains daily on the Seattle to Portland run and four per day using the Stampede pass route.
Besides freight trains there are eight Amtrak trains daily and four Sounder commuter trains.
More trains mean more interaction with people.
Bob Boston, a rail specialist for the state Utilities and Transportation Commission, said he is aware of the BNSF emphasis and applauded it.
Waking on or near tracks is extremely dangerous, he said, “because trains are quieter. They don’t use rails with joints anymore. They are welded together. A trains can be on top of you before you know it. It’s hard to hear them 100 feet away.”
Melonas said BNSF doesn’t want to stop people from waving at trains that go by or stop the recreating public from getting to where they want to go. The point, he said, is to use proper intersections for crossing tracks.
RAILROAD SEEKS PUBLIC’S HELP
The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railroad is asking the public to help keep people off the tracks by reporting incidents to the BNSF Police Teams, 1-800-832-5452.