(The following story by Doug Smith appeared on the Los Angeles Times website on September 27, 2009.)
LOS ANGELES — The official record of accidents and deaths on the Metrolink commuter rail system is incomplete, marred by inconsistencies and largely hidden from view. The record makes train operations in the Los Angeles region appear to be much less dangerous than they are.
The Times was able to assemble the interactive database and map accompanying this report by drawing on information from several sources, many never before available to the public. To the extent possible, inaccurate or conflicting information was corrected and obvious omissions filled in.
The database suggests that the Federal Railroad Administration’s system for tracking hazards is more suited to monitoring cross-country freight haulers than high-speed trains operating in crowded urban corridors.
Only about four of every 10 fatal accidents in Metrolink’s records have been reported to the federal agency, which posts the information on its public website.
At least 117 Metrolink system pedestrian deaths and six vehicle deaths do not appear in the federal record.
The federal agency requires train operators to file reports under broad circumstances: an accident at a grade crossing, an accident causing damage to railroad equipment or an accident resulting in loss of life — except when the death is ruled a suicide.
Metrolink’s reporting practice has been inconsistent, the Times found. The agency reported some deaths that were ruled suicide but often failed to report deaths considered to be accidental.
The agency’s records are also inadequate for one of the most basic forms of analysis: pattern mapping. Electronic files of Southern California’s rail system can be downloaded from the federal website but are riddled with errors, placing hundreds of rail crossings at points far from any railroad tracks. Many are shown in the Pacific Ocean.
A spokesman for the agency said there is no plan to remedy the data, which he conceded could be as much as 20% wrong. It’s up to individual rail operators to correct any errors, he said.
Metrolink staff in Los Angeles have done a better job of mapping crossings and rail lines. Electronic maps provided by the public commuter rail agency were the basis for The Times map. In many cases, however, they identified crossings incorrectly or in the wrong places. The Times corrected these errors when it found them.
The accident history of the Metrolink system is complicated by the fractured nature of the system itself. Metrolink owns and maintains most of the right of way, but some portions of the track are owned by other operators. These include another public agency, the North County Transit District in San Diego, and two private freight operators.
As the ownership of these lines changed, milepost designations along the track were reordered, so that records from earlier years do not match with mileposts in use today. The Times inspected records individually as necessary, in an attempt to identify correct locations.
Amtrak passenger trains use the same tracks Metrolink commuter trains use. So do freight trains operated by Union Pacific Railroad and Burlington Northern Santa Fe. Older records also name Southern Pacific, which was purchased by Union Pacific.
Electronic records that Metrolink provided to The Times do not indicate which train operator was involved in an accident, and The Times did not attempt to determine that information.
Thus accidents in this database provide a profile of the system as a whole, but not specifically Metrolink operations.
The accident information was kept by Metrolink staff in different formats over the years.
The Times combined these into a single database and supplemented that with other records obtained from Metrolink under the California Public Records Act.
Among them were paper records, called “Unusual Occurrence Reports” filed by train engineers for a variety of reasons. These reports documented many accidents, some involving injuries and deaths, that did not appear on any electronic lists. The Times obtained these reports from 2002 onward.
Train engineers also used the paper forms to report numerous near misses in which they applied emergency braking to avoid hitting a vehicle or pedestrian. Neither the Federal Railroad Administration’s nor Metrolink’s electronic records track these near collisions.
Sometimes these near misses fit into a pattern that wouldn’t be apparent in the formal record.
Last March, Metrolink’s environmental contractor billed more than $3,200 to clean the remains of two people who were on the tracks in Fullerton and Norwalk.
Metrolink’s records show two pedestrian deaths in March but say one of them occurred in San Clemente and the other in either La Mirada or Norwalk.
According to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, Liber Quinones, a 22-year-old from Baldwin Park, was killed by a Metrolink train last July 30. No Metrolink database reveals an accident on that date.
In more than 100 cases, Metrolink records had differing dates, times or victim names for what appeared to be the same accident.
The Times attempted to eliminate duplicate entries. In a few cases ambiguity could not be resolved because the location or other key information was also missing.