(The following story by Phuong Cat Le appeared on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer website on May 25.)
SEATTLE — Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway authorities yesterday rejected the city of Seattle’s offer to maintain a fence along a deadly stretch of railroad tracks and said they want to study safety solutions further.
Seven people have been killed along a one-mile portion of railroad tracks that runs through Golden Gardens Park. The latest death occurred last month, when Kali Fuda, an 18- year-old Mountlake Terrace High School senior, was hit by a passenger train.
In a reversal from previous years, the city of Seattle says it wants a fence to be built along the stretch. It offered last week to maintain the fence — something it had long resisted — if BNSF built the fence on its property. The railway owns the right of way along the tracks, and the city owns the park property surrounding it.
But railway authorities say they want to hire an engineer to survey the property and determine where a fence could go. They haven’t ruled out a fence, BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas said, but an engineering study would look at other solutions as well, including vegetation or other barriers.
The city and the railroad had agreed to contribute $15,000 each to the efforts.
Marianne Bichsel, spokeswoman for Mayor Greg Nickels, said the city would rather that its $15,000 went toward a fence, not a plan.
“Our feeling is that Burlington Northern should put up a fence,” Bichsel said. If BNSF doesn’t believe the city should maintain the fence, she added, the railroad should maintain it.
Melonas said Seattle Parks and Recreation can’t maintain the fence because it doesn’t have the proper equipment, and railroad rules prohibit park workers from being near the tracks. He said union rules would also require the railway to pay workers for any work it contracts out.
Melonas didn’t say how long the study would take, how much it would cost or how quickly it could be implemented. In the meantime, he said BNSF would put up warning signs, and trains will blow their whistle and ring their bells as they pass through the area — something they currently don’t do because there are no grade crossings in that stretch.
Bichsel said the city still feels a fence would be the best way to keep people off the tracks, particularly as the summer season brings more people to the beach.
The city will also put up more signs and block paths people now use as shortcuts to cross the tracks and walk on the beach, she said.