(The Seattle Post-Intelligencer posted the following article by Wyatt Buchanan on its website on October 17.)
SEATTLE — The city of Seattle has rejected the offer of a free fence along railroad tracks that run through Golden Gardens Park. Railway authorities call the stretch of tracks one of the most dangerous between Minnesota and the Pacific Ocean.
The offer came from Nicole DeBerge, a Florida woman who had sued the city for $40 million after being hit by a train there in 1994. The city settled that lawsuit this week, giving DeBerge $750,000. She offered $10,440 of that for a fence, a cost estimate that came from a 1995 city proposal for a similar fencing project there.
But city officials say they don’t want any of DeBerge’s money and don’t plan to build a fence.
“It wouldn’t solve the problem of people not taking responsibility for trespassing,” said Kathryn Harper, spokeswoman for City Attorney Thomas Carr.
“The city cannot possibly put a fence around every place a risk might exist,” she said, adding that building a fence in one spot would increase the city’s liability in places where a fence is not built.
DeBerge’s offer is an attempt to deflect her responsibility in the accident, Harper said. The city’s decision to settle was a business decision, she said.
DeBerge made the offer at a news conference yesterday afternoon. After hearing of the city’s rejection, DeBerge’s attorney Jeffrey Johnson said he was disappointed.
“The assumption that people understand the risks of that blind curve has just proven wrong for over a decade,” Johnson said. He said the city is acutely aware of the dangers in the area and could face significant liability if someone else is killed.
Forty percent of the 77 people killed on Washington train tracks in the past five years were killed in the Bellingham-Tacoma corridor, said Gus Melonas, spokesman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.
“Golden Gardens is one of the worst stretches in this corridor,” he said. Six people have died since 1990 along a one-mile length of track that extends through the park and north of it, according to state data.
A state railway official said building a fence would not solve all the problems with trespassing at the park, but it would help.
“A fence is certainly going to deter a number of people,” said Mike Rowswell, rail safety manager at the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission. “The more people who are out there, the more likely it is there is going to be an accident.”
A fence built near a water pumping station north of where DeBerge was hit has helped curb trespassing tremendously, he said.
The railway maintains one fenced area near the park that constantly needs repair from people who cut through it, Melonas said.
DeBerge was visiting friends in Seattle in 1994, just after completing her junior year at the University of Arizona.
The group went to the park, which has a beach area and a forested bluff that are separated by the railroad tracks.
Walking from the beach inland, DeBerge did not see signage that said the tracks were off-limits or that they were not part of the park property. Several trails led up to one side of the double tracks and continued on the other side.
“It seemed to me a safe place,” DeBerge said at the news conference. There were many pedestrians walking in the area, she said.
When a freight train came north on one set of tracks, DeBerge — a photography student — began taking pictures. She was standing a few feet off the tracks and did not see or hear a second freight train, which extended several feet out from the rails, approaching from around the curve behind her.
Between 50 and 60 trains pass through the park each day traveling at 35 mph.
Railway workers say it is almost impossible to hear an approaching train until a few seconds before it passes. Rustling leaves and the curved hillside block the sound.
DeBerge was hit by the second train and was left a paraplegic, reliant on a wheelchair for mobility. She has had 16 surgeries for her injuries and had medical bills of more than $1 million.
DeBerge, now 30 and living near Miami, previously sued the railway for the accident and settled for $2.8 million.
Harper said the tracks are not part of city property and thus the city is not liable.
During the news conference, DeBerge appealed directly to Mayor Greg Nickels to accept her offer.
“I don’t think anyone should have to die before a fence is put up,” she said.