(The following appeared on the San Francisco Examiner website on March 20, 2011. Tim Smith is Chairman of the California State Legislative Board.)
SAN FRANCISCO — Deaths on the Caltrain tracks have gone down since 2009’s near-record high prompted increased safety and suicide prevention measures.
It’s too soon to say, however, whether those measures are bearing fruit, officials said. Caltrain has had four pedestrian deaths so far this year.
There were 19 deaths in 2009, 15 of which were deemed suicides and four of which involved teens in Palo Alto. In response, Caltrain implemented safety measures including increased police enforcement along the railsystem,engineering improvements to crosswalks preventing trespassing and increased suicide prevention education and outreach.
Though Caltrain occasionally experiences vehicle-train incidents and accidents, the agency’s primary safety focus is suicide.
“In 2009, we really worked with the community to prevent suicide,” Caltrain spokeswoman Christine Dunn said.
Though Caltrain pedestrian deaths dropped to 11 last year — nine of which have been confirmed suicides — the numbers have fluctuated widely over the years.
“We really have no way of judging if our efforts were effective or not,” Dunn said.
Caltrain installed suicide-prevention signs along the tracks in 2001 containing a phone number to a national suicide-prevention hotline, said Dunn.
However, officials only began tracking calls to such numbers in 2010 as part of a national study to determine whether the signs are effective. As part of that effort, 250 new signs were installed along a stretch of track between Menlo Park and Mountain View with numbers to a local crisis center in San Carlos.
The problem of suicide-by-train is a frustrating one for Caltrain officials, and a painful topic for the engineers.
“I don’t think it’s something that anybody can prepare for,” said Tim Smith, California legislative board chairman for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. “It tends to leave scars … at least in your memory bank.”
A train engineer in his 39th year, Smith said pedestrian suicides are unfortunately part of the job. He experienced one suicide along a Stockton rail line in the early 1990s.
“It was not a pretty sight,” Smith said. “I couldn’t sleep for a week. When your hand is on the throttle, you feel a little more responsibility. It’s not a practical way of looking at it, but you can’t swerve off the track.”
The full story is at www.sfexaminer.com.