BART suspends practice of not warning of trains Agency suspends practice criticized in track deaths

BART suspends practice of not warning of trains
Agency suspends practice criticized in track deaths
http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/BART-suspends-practice-of-not...

Doug Duran, Associated Press

Investigators from BART and the National Transportation Safety Board use mannequins to re-enact the accident that killed two workers.
By Jaxon Van Derbeken

October 24, 2013

BART has suspended its practice of not taking steps to protect repair crews when a train is heading toward them, a policy that federal investigators say they are looking into as part of their probe into the deaths of two workers killed on the tracks Saturday in Walnut Creek.

The procedure, which dates back at least 30 years, makes workers solely responsible for their own safety on the tracks. BART has run trains through work areas at full speed and has taken no steps to set up an alert system, saying that would make track crews less vigilant.

The two workers killed Saturday - Christopher Sheppard, 58, a BART track engineer, and Laurence Daniels, 66, a contract employee - were working under the procedure when they were struck while checking on a reported dip in the tracks between the Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill stations.

The train that hit them, which was being operated by a manager being trained to drive trains in the event of an extended strike, was traveling 60 to 70 mph, federal investigators say.

On Sunday, BART suspended the procedure, which it calls "simple approval." It did not publicize the change but posted notices in track yards alerting workers. It took effect before BART's unions reached a tentative settlement of their strike Monday night and returned to work.

"Effective immediately, simple approvals are not authorized," said the notice issued by Roy Aguilera, BART's assistant chief transportation officer. Until further notice, Aguilera wrote, all crews will be afforded "protection from train movement."

Under the order, operators will either have to slow down to 27 mph or bring their trains to a halt until work is complete, depending on the circumstances, or be rerouted around job sites via single-tracking.

"We put a moratorium on the process in an abundance of caution to allow time to evaluate what happened and as a precautionary measure," Alicia Trost, a BART spokeswoman, said Wednesday night.

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board say they will examine BART's simple-approval system as part of their probe into the deaths Saturday.

Slower service expected

Saul Almanza, a BART safety trainer and union official, welcomed the rule change.

"That at least gives us a lot more safeguards than we had before," he said. "Now we know that if we are going to enter the trackway, we have protection from trains entering our work areas."

Almanza said the clearance process is likely to slow down passenger service. "I think it's inevitable now," he said.

BART has long defended the simple-approval procedure despite regulators' concerns that it imperils workers. Cal/OSHA, the state workplace safety agency, issued four citations against BART and levied fines totaling $28,685 after the 2008 death of James Strickland, an inspector who was killed on the tracks near Pleasant Hill. Strickland did not know BART was single-tracking trains through the area and was hit from behind.

One of the citations alleged that the simple-approval system had contributed to the accident. The Cal/OSHA appeals board said BART's system "deprives employees of (information about train travel) intentionally. The proffered reason for depriving workers of this information is so that workers stay alert at all times and expect a train at any time."

The board said, however, that an employer "cannot leave it up to the employee to safeguard himself."

'Unacceptable risk'

BART continues to fight the citations in court. In the meantime, it modified the simple-approval procedure in 2009 to require that at least one worker act as a spotter to warn of oncoming trains, and that the work crew be in position to see a train 15 seconds before it arrives.

But Almanza said the two men killed Saturday might not have been using a spotter. The equipment they were using requires two people, he said, and no other workers were with them.

Regulators with the California Public Utilities Commission have urged BART and other transit agencies to install technology to warn workers of oncoming trains.

In 2010, the utilities commission staff reviewed a dozen accidents nationwide and found "common themes that pose unacceptable risk to rail transit roadway workers."

It concluded that the "fundamental problem" behind the accidents was that repairs "necessarily took workers' attention away from impending danger, namely, approaching trains."

The report concluded: "Roadway workers must be protected by the best procedures and devices, not by wishful thinking about perfect rules compliance, especially when the work assignment itself is a safety distraction."

BART told utilities commission regulators in 2010, however, that no new rules or protections were needed, according to a staff report.

In a report on Strickland's death, the agency pledged to form a committee to find technology to alert workers.

Jaxon Van Derbeken is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail:jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com