(The following story by Doug Oakley appeared on the Contra Costa Times website on November 20.)
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. — A federal official said Monday that a gap in a fence people use to cross Berkeley railroad tracks should be fixed following a fatality last week.
In the meantime, employees of Truitt & White lumber yard who use the shortcut probably will continue to do so despite the death of their colleague, according to two managers who work there.
Scott Slaughter, 31, of Berkeley was struck by an Amtrak train Thursday as he headed for a gap in a fence on the west side of the train tracks across from the Berkeley Amtrak station, according to the Alameda County coroner’s office.
Slaughter had just gotten off an AC Transit bus at the station, and instead of walking one block north or south to a street crossing over the tracks, he decided to take the shortcut through the fence when he was hit.
“There are no federal regulations regarding putting up fences around tracks, but certainly we would want whoever owns the fence to repair it,” said Steve Kulm, a spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration. “In many places throughout the country, fences are put up to keep people off the tracks, but people continue to tear down the fences and cut holes in them.
“In the end, people are going to make the decision to use the tracks as a shortcut, and in far too many cases, it’s a dangerous decision.”
Kulm said that about 500 people are killed nationwide each year walking on railroad tracks. Ninety one were killed last year in California, the highest number in the nation.
The fence, directly across from the Berkeley Amtrak station under the University Avenue overpass, is owned by the city of Berkeley, according to an Amtrak spokeswoman. But Berkeley city officials were unable Monday to verify who owns it. A spokesman for Union Pacific Railroad, which owns the tracks, said the fence “appears to be the city’s property.”
Built of heavy vertical iron bars, some of those bars have been cut at the bottom and wrenched from slots holding them at the top to form a large gap.
John Niemeier, a product buyer for Truitt & White, said that he and six other employees ride the train to work every day and use the shortcut. They do not have any plans to stop.
“The alternative is walking down a block and one block over,” Niemeier said.
He also said that Slaughter’s death had not scared him into going around.
“You pay attention, just like anything else in life,” Niemeier said.
That sentiment is something Amtrak is fighting all the time, spokeswoman Vernae Graham said.
“It’s unfortunate there’s that kind of mentality,” she said. “That’s what we’re up against in trying to get people to understand when you are dealing with trains. You’re not going to win when people are trying to take a shortcut.”
Bill Graham, a purchasing manager at Truitt & White, said that even if the fence were fixed, someone would cut another hole in it. He said that when the fence went up in 2005 at the same time the Amtrak station was built, the bars were cut almost immediately. In addition to employees who use the shortcut, the gap in the fence is a major homeless highway leading to a walkway over Interstate 80, he said.
Bill Graham said company managers were still in shock Monday following Slaughter’s death, and he had not considered warning employees not to use the shortcut.
“People are going to do what they’re going to do,” he said.
Berkeley City Councilman Darryl Moore, whose district includes the fence, said he had not heard of a problem with the fence, but he agreed that someone needs to do something.
“Whoever is the guilty party needs to fix the fence to keep people from squeezing through there,” he said. “If it’s the city, we need to fix the fence; if it’s Union Pacific, they need to.”