Statement by Supervisor Yaroslavsky re: SFV Busway safety vs. Rail Safety
MTA Board of Directors and Interested Parties:
At Thursday's MTA Board meeting, during a discussion regarding the hazards of rail transit, MTA Board Member Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky appeared to suggest that the speed reductions on the San Fernando Valley busway is the reason why the busway's accidents have been less severe or fatal than the light rail and commuter rail accidents. Given that I have not spent much time SPECIFICALLY evaluating accidents on the SFV busway, I cannot say whether this statement is accurate or not. But I can comment on the differences in the safety hazards posed by MTA's buses and light rail vehicles, which are universally understood by transportation system engineers. Simply, MTA's buses have several capabilities to minimize or reduce impacts that trains do not have.
1) MTA's buses are never 225-tons; MTA's light rail vehicles are.
2) MTA's buses have steering wheels, which allows the driver to turn to avert or lessen crash impacts; MTA's light rail trains do not have the capability of turning to avert or lessen crash impacts.
3) The braking distance of MTA's buses is significantly shorter than MTA's light rail trains. Incidentally, braking distance includes driver recognition and response time.
4) MTA's buses do not have couplings at the end of the vehcils; MTA's light rail vehicles do.
To better visualize these differences, I've attached pictures from four separate accidents where the train's operating speed was between 15-20 mph on the line that has been labeled by MTA as "safe," the Pasadena Gold Line. Also, below is a LA Times article from one of the MTA Blue Line accidents that resulted in the death of two senior citizens. The train's operating speed was 10 mph.
Furthermore, the so-called proposed speed reduction at the controversial Farmdale intersection has been conclusively found to be an insufficient mitigation measure by internationally recognized rail expert Maj. Russ Quimby (ret.) - a West Point graduate who spent 22 years at the National Transportation Safety Board, including many years as the chairman of the railroad and rail-transit accident investigation groups. He has credentials so impecable he was hired by your very agency, MTA, to testify on your behalf in a lawsuit regarding a Blue Line accident.
During cross examination the question of train speed reduction at the Farmdale Avenue crossing which abuts 2100 student Dorsey HS was discussed:
Maj. Russ Quimby's Answer:
And what happens is if you slow the trains down, your window of hazard lengthens. And then you get the condition, the population to believe, well, the train is slow. It's hard to judge a train coming head on at you with a headlight on. And that basically causes the students, emboldens them to basically say, well, the train is only going ten miles an hour, I can beat it, and run across the tracks in front of the trains. I guess in [National Transportation] Safety Board studies that we've done you end up creating as many problems as you solve by slowing the train down. You just create a longer window of opportunity or hazard.
Expo's Question:
And your statement that the students would be embolden to run across the tracks, what do you base that on?
Maj. Quimby's Answer:
Well, they're going very slow, and you got students who are impatient and standing there waiting for a slower train to go by, and they feel like they have more time to beat the train across the tracks.
Expo's Question:
What about gates that go down, wouldn't that?
Maj. Quimby's Answer:
With pedestrians in particular, a lot of people feel, even if you have pedestrian gates there, they duck under them, walk under them, whatever. People ignore signs and gates. 25 percent of all vehicle collisions at grade crossings that had gates result in fatalities. I mean so if you've got 25 percent of the people being killed at crossings with gates, you know, they drive around them and things of that nature. So a gate is like – it's more – obviously more active than a sign, but it doesn't prevent behavior.
Expo's Question:
Well, informing that opinion, wouldn't it have been useful for you to observe whether or not that's the case on other lines within Los Angeles?
Maj. Quimby's Answer:
I saw that at the Vernon Station.
Expo's Question:
You observed people crossing with the same sort of crossing barrier?
Maj. Quimby's Answer:
Yes.
Expo's Question:
And often, right, just all the time racing across?
Maj. Quimby's Answer:
Pretty much.
Expo's Question:
And you translate that opinion back to the same thing is going to happen at Farmdale?
Maj. Quimby's Answer:
I would say most certainly. And it happens generally. I'm not a behavioral scientist, but generally speaking, the younger the population, the younger the person, generally the more apt they are to do that, because they're physically able to. And I don't know, when you're young you don't have the rationale and experience as you do as you get older where you're more careful.
We at Fix Expo look forward to continually working with the Supervisor to accurately educate the public about the safety hazards of light rail transit, and advocate for the appropriate mitigation of light rail transit.
Additionally, please do not intentionally or unintentionally misconstrue this email to suggest that the Fix Expo Campaign would endorse a busway alternative on this corridor or any other. Fix Expo has been firm in it's statements that we support the Expo Line, but not as currently proposed. We in South LA simply expect the same level of safety and impacts as the City of Culver City and it's directly impacted residential community.
Sincerely,
Damien Goodmon
Coordinator, Fix Expo Campaign
dg@fixexpo.org
323.845.2003
CC:
Expo Authority Board of Directors
BCC:
Community & Press
2 Killed as Car Goes Through Traffic Signal and Collides With Blue Line Train
By Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times
December 18, 1992
Two people were killed Thursday night when their car collided with a Blue Line commuter train in Long Beach, authorities said.
RTD spokesman Jim Smart said the accident occurred about 7 p.m. when the car failed to stop at a traffic signal and was struck by the train as it approached a station near 1st Street and Pine Avenue.
Smart said the victims, whose identities were not immediately available, were an elderly man and woman. The male driver of the car was pronounced dead at St. Mary's Hospital in Long Beach. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene, he said.
Authorities said the train had slowed to 10 m.p.h. in preparation for a stop at the Transit Mall Station, near the southern terminus of the commuter line. The impact crushed the car against the station platform, RTD officials said.
At Thursday's MTA Board meeting, during a discussion regarding the hazards of rail transit, MTA Board Member Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky appeared to suggest that the speed reductions on the San Fernando Valley busway is the reason why the busway's accidents have been less severe or fatal than the light rail and commuter rail accidents. Given that I have not spent much time SPECIFICALLY evaluating accidents on the SFV busway, I cannot say whether this statement is accurate or not. But I can comment on the differences in the safety hazards posed by MTA's buses and light rail vehicles, which are universally understood by transportation system engineers. Simply, MTA's buses have several capabilities to minimize or reduce impacts that trains do not have.
1) MTA's buses are never 225-tons; MTA's light rail vehicles are.
2) MTA's buses have steering wheels, which allows the driver to turn to avert or lessen crash impacts; MTA's light rail trains do not have the capability of turning to avert or lessen crash impacts.
3) The braking distance of MTA's buses is significantly shorter than MTA's light rail trains. Incidentally, braking distance includes driver recognition and response time.
4) MTA's buses do not have couplings at the end of the vehcils; MTA's light rail vehicles do.
To better visualize these differences, I've attached pictures from four separate accidents where the train's operating speed was between 15-20 mph on the line that has been labeled by MTA as "safe," the Pasadena Gold Line. Also, below is a LA Times article from one of the MTA Blue Line accidents that resulted in the death of two senior citizens. The train's operating speed was 10 mph.
Furthermore, the so-called proposed speed reduction at the controversial Farmdale intersection has been conclusively found to be an insufficient mitigation measure by internationally recognized rail expert Maj. Russ Quimby (ret.) - a West Point graduate who spent 22 years at the National Transportation Safety Board, including many years as the chairman of the railroad and rail-transit accident investigation groups. He has credentials so impecable he was hired by your very agency, MTA, to testify on your behalf in a lawsuit regarding a Blue Line accident.
During cross examination the question of train speed reduction at the Farmdale Avenue crossing which abuts 2100 student Dorsey HS was discussed:
Maj. Russ Quimby's Answer:
And what happens is if you slow the trains down, your window of hazard lengthens. And then you get the condition, the population to believe, well, the train is slow. It's hard to judge a train coming head on at you with a headlight on. And that basically causes the students, emboldens them to basically say, well, the train is only going ten miles an hour, I can beat it, and run across the tracks in front of the trains. I guess in [National Transportation] Safety Board studies that we've done you end up creating as many problems as you solve by slowing the train down. You just create a longer window of opportunity or hazard.
Expo's Question:
And your statement that the students would be embolden to run across the tracks, what do you base that on?
Maj. Quimby's Answer:
Well, they're going very slow, and you got students who are impatient and standing there waiting for a slower train to go by, and they feel like they have more time to beat the train across the tracks.
Expo's Question:
What about gates that go down, wouldn't that?
Maj. Quimby's Answer:
With pedestrians in particular, a lot of people feel, even if you have pedestrian gates there, they duck under them, walk under them, whatever. People ignore signs and gates. 25 percent of all vehicle collisions at grade crossings that had gates result in fatalities. I mean so if you've got 25 percent of the people being killed at crossings with gates, you know, they drive around them and things of that nature. So a gate is like – it's more – obviously more active than a sign, but it doesn't prevent behavior.
Expo's Question:
Well, informing that opinion, wouldn't it have been useful for you to observe whether or not that's the case on other lines within Los Angeles?
Maj. Quimby's Answer:
I saw that at the Vernon Station.
Expo's Question:
You observed people crossing with the same sort of crossing barrier?
Maj. Quimby's Answer:
Yes.
Expo's Question:
And often, right, just all the time racing across?
Maj. Quimby's Answer:
Pretty much.
Expo's Question:
And you translate that opinion back to the same thing is going to happen at Farmdale?
Maj. Quimby's Answer:
I would say most certainly. And it happens generally. I'm not a behavioral scientist, but generally speaking, the younger the population, the younger the person, generally the more apt they are to do that, because they're physically able to. And I don't know, when you're young you don't have the rationale and experience as you do as you get older where you're more careful.
We at Fix Expo look forward to continually working with the Supervisor to accurately educate the public about the safety hazards of light rail transit, and advocate for the appropriate mitigation of light rail transit.
Additionally, please do not intentionally or unintentionally misconstrue this email to suggest that the Fix Expo Campaign would endorse a busway alternative on this corridor or any other. Fix Expo has been firm in it's statements that we support the Expo Line, but not as currently proposed. We in South LA simply expect the same level of safety and impacts as the City of Culver City and it's directly impacted residential community.
Sincerely,
Damien Goodmon
Coordinator, Fix Expo Campaign
dg@fixexpo.org
323.845.2003
CC:
Expo Authority Board of Directors
BCC:
Community & Press
2 Killed as Car Goes Through Traffic Signal and Collides With Blue Line Train
By Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times
December 18, 1992
Two people were killed Thursday night when their car collided with a Blue Line commuter train in Long Beach, authorities said.
RTD spokesman Jim Smart said the accident occurred about 7 p.m. when the car failed to stop at a traffic signal and was struck by the train as it approached a station near 1st Street and Pine Avenue.
Smart said the victims, whose identities were not immediately available, were an elderly man and woman. The male driver of the car was pronounced dead at St. Mary's Hospital in Long Beach. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene, he said.
Authorities said the train had slowed to 10 m.p.h. in preparation for a stop at the Transit Mall Station, near the southern terminus of the commuter line. The impact crushed the car against the station platform, RTD officials said.
Labels: metro orange line, MTA, zev yaroslavsky
Posted by Michael Higby @ 9/28/2008 08:17:00 PM
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