Ca-Osha Fines In BART Deaths But No Criminal Prosecution-Taxpayers Pay Again For Murders

Ca-Osha Fines In BART Deaths But No Criminal Prosecution-Taxpayers Pay Again For Murders
http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/BART-fined-for-worker-deaths-...
BART fined for worker deaths during strike
Kurtis Alexander

April 17, 2014

(04-17) 12:35 PDT OAKLAND -- State regulators on Thursday fined BART $210,000 in connection with the deaths of two track workers who were hit by a train last October during a union strike, accusing the transit agency of three "willful" violations of safety rules.

The investigation by Cal/OSHA, which regulates workplace safety, said BART should not have allowed the workers, under a long-controversial policy called "simple approval," to do the Oct. 19 inspection while trains were moving in excess of 65 mph on the same track.

While one of the workers was supposed to act as a lookout under the policy, neither one did, Cal/OSHA said. As a result, the employees "had no warning" of the train that struck them near Walnut Creek. They reportedly had their backs turned.

A second violation charged that a BART manager who was controlling the train that collided with the track workers had not been adequately trained for the job. Such managers, the state said, "were allowed to operate trains with inadequate supervision during an abbreviated training course."

BART had been training the managers as drivers to prepare for the possibility of an extended strike.

The third violation alleged that one of the workers who died had been in danger of being electrocuted before he was struck, because he was not qualified to carry a track gauge that could have exposed him to the system's 1,000-volt third rail.

"Employers in California must comply with safety standards to protect their employees, and diligence is vital in hazardous working conditions," said Christine Baker, who heads Cal/OSHA, in a prepared statement.

BART has since fixed all three of the problems, according to state and BART officials. Simple approval is no longer used during track inspections and repairs.

"Passenger and employee safety is our top priority at BART," the transit agency's general manager, Grace Crunican, said after the fines were leveled. "BART has fundamentally upgraded its safety procedures with the implementation of an enhanced wayside safety program and a proposed budget investment of over $5 million in additional resources to bolster BART's safety performance."

The collision killed BART track engineer Christopher Sheppard, 58, of Hayward and contract employee Laurence Daniels, 66, of Fair Oaks (Sacramento County).

Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail:kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander