The SMART board voted unanimously Wednesday to fund the construction of more pedestrian safety fencing at railroad crossings after five people were fatally struck by SMART trains in Sonoma County in a three-week period.
The 13 railroad crossing barriers, which include nine in San Rafael and Novato, are in addition to the 17 barriers approved by the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit board in May, which are set to be completed in the coming weeks. Ghilotti Brothers Inc. was awarded a nearly $500,000 contract to complete all the barriers this year.
The barriers, sometimes referred to as Z-gates, require pedestrians to weave through a set of chain-link fences to access the track crossing. SMART officials hope these gates in combination with bright stencils on the sidewalk warning of train tracks will make pedestrians and cyclists more aware of the tracks even if they’re not paying attention.
“If you’re on foot or on a bicycle you’re going to run into this fence before you run into the train,” SMART General Manager Farhad Mansourian told the board.
Pedestrian gates are also planned at all crossings for SMART’s new San Rafael to Larkspur extension, set to open later this year.
The idea of adding the barriers dates back to November 2018 after a man wearing headphones and looking down was struck and killed by a train in Rohnert Park in August. The death was ruled an accident. SMART staff has since assessed how to improve safety at the 43-mile rail system’s 62 road crossings.
Two of the five recent deaths, which occurred between June 27 and Monday, were attributed to pedestrians not taking heed of or not paying attention to warning lights and gate barriers. Three are suspected cases of suicide.
Suicide has been identified as the cause in six of the nine deaths, including one in Novato in 2018, that have occurred on the rail system since it launched in August 2017.
Suicide is a community issue, not SMART’s alone, many said at the meeting, although one public speaker disagreed. To address the issue, SMART formed a suicide prevention community coalition made up of public safety, mental health, transit, business, education and media officials.
“We know this is a community issue and we have a community response,” SMART board member and Novato Mayor Eric Lucan said. “The one thing I know about the North Bay: the North Bay responds and the North Bay responds very strongly.”
“This is an incredibly difficult issue,” said SMART board member and Marin Supervisor Damon Connolly. “It’s not going to be solved by one solution, it’s going to be comprehensive.”
Continued outreach and education, installation of safety measures such as gates and enhanced enforcement by local and SMART law enforcement officers were identified as options.
As for enforcement, SMART currently has one code enforcement officer employed of the two-and-half positions it has budgeted for, which SMART police Chief Jennifer McGill said makes it difficult to enforce encampments and trespassing on the tracks. She called on local law enforcement to play a greater role in enforcing illegal crossings.
The recent deaths has put a spotlight on the nearly two-year-old rail system.
Mansourian said Tuesday he has been contacted by rail agencies throughout the country asking for ideas on how to address the problem. Some were blunt, telling him to prepare for more deaths. But the effect on the families of the deceased and SMART engineers and staff warrant a response, Mansourian told the board Wednesday.
“We don’t think it’s OK to just let that happen,” he said.
Mansourian said he has been implored to stem the flow of information about the suicides to curb copy cat incidents. The details are out of his control, he said, since they are released by public safety officials.
Some SMART board members and Mansourian directed their ire at public safety text message alert systems such as Nixle and at media coverage that they blamed for calling attention to and glorifying suicides by train.
“To me that’s not news,” said SMART board member and Sonoma County Supervisor David Rabbitt.
Mansourian said the media was making unwarranted comparisons to rail lines such as BART, which he and Connolly argued have drastically different rail configurations.
“This is not a SMART issue, it is a national issue,” Mansourian said.
