(The following story by Jeff Benziger appeared on the Ceres (Calif.) Courier on December 29.)
CERES, Calif. — After a Ceres woman was killed by stepping in front of a train in Turlock on Dec. 12, and a Ceres man killed by a train west of Highway 99 on Dec. 5, many might wonder how safe any pedestrian might be walking near tracks.
And according to Union Pacific Railroad spokesman Mark Davis, the answer is never.
“Trains are quieter than they used to be,” Davis said. “The best thing you can do is to stay off railroad tracks.”
Railroad tracks, trestles, yards and equipment are all considered private property and walking or playing on them is illegal. Being on the tracks are a violation of trespassing laws, said Turlock Police Sgt. Sue Steele.
Police say that victim Jimmy Banks, 71, may have been intoxicated on the train tracks when he was struck and killed near Railroad Avenue in Ceres on Dec. 5.
But even though those laws are in place, California leads the states in trespass fatalities with 86 people in 2004. The number two state is Texas with 41.
Operation Lifesaver, a national railroad crossing safety organization started by Union Pacific Railroad in the 1970s, said 5,100 people have been killed while trespassing on tracks in the last decade.
“For a train crew, that has to be one of the two most horrific incidents they can go through,” Davis said. “Because of the massive force, it can be a horrific scene.”
Union Pacific offers a counseling program to its crews that are involved in train vs. pedestrian wrecks. Davis said the railroad has sometimes been contacted by first responders and even journalists that have been traumatized by the accident.
Keeping people off the tracks is the best defense to accidents like those in Ceres and Turlock experienced, Davis said. But that is easier said than done.
Putting up fences might seem like a solution to keeping people away from railroad tracks, but Davis said that isn’t necessarily true.
“It’s very seldom that we find tracks fenced across the country,” he said. “With vandalism and people using them as shortcuts · sometimes they are more of a hazard than a safety measure.”
The tragic death of Cheateama Hawkins on Sept. 11, 2003 illustrated the point that fences erected by the railroad aren’t effective in keeping people from tearing them down to make for shorter paths. The Ceres teen was killed when she was crossing the Union Pacific tracks near the offramp west of Whitmore Park. A chain-link has remained ripped loose for an illegal shortcut underneath an elevated section of Highway 99.
On Feb. 8 53-year-old Hughson resident Debra Brace was killed when she stepped into the path of a Santa Fe train on Whitmore Avenue in Hughson. The woman was apparently despondent over the death of her husband.
If a community’s tracks are in good shape, trains will travel up to 70 mph through a town.
Train speed, which is determined by the condition of the tracks the train is traveling on, said Davis, doesn’t have a lot of bearing on the death rate.
Oddly enough, Davis said there are more vehicle/train collisions when trains travel slowly through communities. He said 86 percent of all wrecks that occur at grade crossing happen when trains are traveling below 49 mph.
“People know its going to be waiting a long time for that (slower) train. They’re willing to take a chance,” Davis said. “And sometimes that’s a fatal mistake.”
Collisions aren’t the only problem trains pose on the towns they run through.
The train death of Ceres resident Renee Merrick was the third in Turlock in six months.