(The following story by Ethan Fletcher appeared on the San Francisco Examiner website on November 1.)
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — As any engineer will verify, the two train fatalities on Caltrain tracks last week — both possible suicides — were not at all uncommon.
Death along the tracks where they work is a fact of life for train engineers, according to Caltrain spokeswoman Jayme Kunz, and any employee who works directly on the line for any length of time will eventually be introduced to this dark aspect of public transportation.
Last Thursday was a particularly bad day for Caltrain employees. At around 5:50 a.m., 58-year-old South San Francisco resident Michael Collins was killed when a northbound train at the South Linden Avenue crossing broadsided his car, killing him.
Police are unsure why Collins apparently ignored properly functioning warning signals and drove his car in front of the oncoming train.
About 16 hours later, 39-year-old Redwood City resident Anthony Toscanelli was killed when he was run over by a train shortly before 10 p.m.
Toscanelli was lying across the tracks between Redwood City and Atherton when he was struck, and Kunz said suicide is a possibility. The San Mateo County Coroner’s Office is investigating whether alcohol or drugs were involved.
Including the two deaths Thursday, there have been seven fatalities this year on the Caltrain tracks that stretch from San Francisco to San Jose, according to Kunz, who added that this is not an unusually high number.
There were 10 fatalities last year, five in 2002, 14 in 2001 and 17 the year before, the majority of which were suicides, according to Kunz.
“Unfortunately, it’s an all-too-common phenomenon,” Kunz said, adding that the effect of the deaths are not only felt by those killed or their families.
“These deaths affect the passengers, the engine operators, the crew that staffs the train and all the people called out to deal with it,” she said.
But in particular, these deaths affect the engineers who can do little more than watch an accident take place while their train takes half a mile to stop completely from its top speed of 79 mph.
“These people are being forced to take a life against their will — it’s emotionally traumatic,” Kunz said, adding that railroad engineers often have one of the highest rates of post-traumatic stress disorder than any other profession. Caltrain allows engineers to take time off work after a fatality occurs, and counseling is provided to those who want it, Kunz said.
Mark Collins, Caltrain’s director of operations, who himself worked on trains for more than 20 years, said that almost every train operator has witnessed a railroad fatality. Collins personally had been involved in four fatalities, two of which were suicides, while working on the rails.
Collins, who said he is still haunted by those deaths, said the emotional reaction typically ranges from guilt to anger at the victim for involving the operator in the death.
“It’s not a good feeling to be part of an act that takes somebody’s life,” Collins said. “I think there’s a feeling of helplessness.”
“However it does come with the territory,” he continued. “Locomotive engineers take a lot of pride in their craft, and you just have to move on.”