(The following story by Lisa Mascaro was published in the January 20 online issue of the Los Angeles Daily News.)
BURBANK, Calif. — Just a few months ago Tujunga resident Craig Hess was driving to the new Empire Center, nearing the railroad tracks at Buena Vista Street and San Fernando Road, when he had a close call with a train.
He was waiting to turn left from southbound Buena Vista onto eastbound San Fernando when the crossing arms suddenly came down behind him, sandwiching his car between the arms and the tracks.
“We were sitting there and all of a sudden the guardrails came down behind us. We were pinned between the guardrail and the train,” the 58-year-old said. “I could see how people get really panicky. I just sat there and thought, Oh man.”
The recently renovated intersection was the site of a Jan. 6 crash — one of the worst in Metrolink’s history — caused when a truck pulled in front of the train. The motorist was killed instantly, and 32 passengers were injured when two train cars derailed.
Over the past decade, that intersection has seen five other vehicle-train crashes, although none of those was fatal, according to Metrolink records.
Plans call for eventually transforming the crossing to a below-grade crossing.
“That’s the ultimate safety device — to make sure the trains and cars are at different levels,” said Burbank traffic engineer Kenneth Johnson.
Shortly after the Empire Center opened last spring, the revampedintersection also debuted, with additional turn lanes and another rail-crossing arm installed across newly widened Buena Vista.
And to comply with new regulations, the crossing arms were repositioned so they are now perpendicular to Buena Vista, rather than parallel to the tracks, Johnson said.
But that change also created a widened dilemma zone — the space Hess experienced when he inadvertently got too close to the tracks — even though all the pavement markings and signs warn motorists against entering.
To ensure that motorists get out of the dilemma zone in time, Johnson said, they are given the green light along southbound Buena Vista while all others must stop at a red.
“That green signal gives them the time to get out of there,” Johnson said. “We want to make the systems idiot-proof … Even though they get caught on the tracks, they have time to get off.”
The Federal Railroad Administration reports that half of all train crashes nationwide occur where there are active warning devices — the bells and whistles that warn drivers to stay off the tracks.
For Hess, who said there was a vehicle in front of him also making the turn, he said he decided to sit tight and wait it out.
Unable to do much, he sat there — foot hard on the brake — as the train whizzed by in front of him.
“There’s a lot of room there,” he said about the intersection. “I just didn’t realize I got way into this thing.”
After the Jan. 6 crash, some said the train crossing was made more dangerous because of the distance between the gates and the tracks, as well as more traffic generated by the mall.
“I live here and that signal is a big problem,” said Steve Clemons, 58, of Burbank, who said traffic from the new Empire Center has made it even more hazardous.
“Traffic gets backed up, and even when the gates come down, people get caught in there.”