TRESPASSERS CITED IN BID TO STEM SPATE OF DEATHS
(The following article by Jessie Seyfer was published in the January 22 online issue of the San Jose Mercury News.)
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A startling number of deaths this year along Caltrain’s tracks spurred the commuter train agency to launch a sweep of its San Francisco sections Tuesday, ferreting out trespassers and emphasizing public safety.
In the first 17 days of 2003, five people died after being struck by the 900,000-pound trains — the same number as in all of 2002. Three of the five appear to be suicides, and the official cause of death for the others hasn’t been determined, said Caltrain spokeswoman Jayme Maltbie.
“It’s really bizarre,” said Capt. Jim Martino of the Amtrak police, which patrols the 80-mile San Francisco-to-Gilroy line.
Officials aren’t sure what, if anything, has prompted the spate of suicides.
“It could be the economy, or that we’re going to war,” said Amtrak police Sgt. Lars Jeffry, adding that deaths along other rail lines patrolled by Amtrak in other parts of the country this year are also on the rise. “You can’t prevent suicides. But we try really hard.”
Caltrain conducts daylong safety sweeps four or five times a year, and on Tuesday focused on a two-mile section within San Francisco city limits where two of this year’s victims were killed, and where homeless encampments often crop up.
“Sometimes homeless camps translate to fatalities,” Jeffry said.
Members of the San Mateo County sheriff’s office and the San Francisco Police Department joined Amtrak police to form Tuesday’s eight-person patrol, which split into groups looking for people walking on the tracks or living too close to them.
At Quint Street, in the city’s Bayview district, the officers spotted one poncho-wearing man walking along the tracks, and promptly cited him. The man, who is homeless and who gave his name as Juan, said he was collecting soda cans.
He was fined $22 for a first offense; subsequent trespassing offenses can cost more. Last year, officers issued more than 600 citations to people along the tracks.
As the officers wrote the man’s citation, a train rumbled past, headed into a tunnel at a high speed.
Maltbie said when people are struck by the trains, it takes an emotional toll, not just on victims’ families and friends, but also on engineers and emergency responders. Two of this year’s victims were struck by a train driven by the same engineer, who has since taken time off and has been offered counseling.
The Amtrak officers participating in Tuesday’s sweep said they had gone to the scene of almost every fatality so far this year, and said they hope to never see another body blown to pieces by the force of the trains.
Until he started his job as an Amtrak detective, Jake Mumford said of the trains: “I never respected their power and their speed.”
Mumford said that when the wind is blowing in a certain direction, and the engine is in the back instead of the front, the trains can sneak up on people.
“People who work along these tracks call them ghost trains,” he said. “I didn’t believe it at first, but I do now.”
Maltbie said it’s not feasible to fence off the entire Caltrain corridor to guard against trespassers and people determined to commit suicide because the tracks are in some of the Bay Area’s most heavily populated and traveled urban areas.
The agency posts signs about every quarter-mile warning of the dangers of trespassing, and, every quarter-mile, signs are posted along the tracks that feature a nationwide suicide prevention hotline.
While deaths on the Caltrain tracks garner a lot of publicity, it’s not an option to keep news about them hushed, Maltbie said.