Amtrak Transferred Police Before Deaths Along S.D. County Tracks : Safety: Officials say the presence of officers wouldn't have saved four people who were fatally struck by trains in past weeks. There is no plan to reinstate them.

By H.G. REZA

Oct. 26, 1990 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SAN DIEGO — Amtrak closed down its three-person San Diego County police force--which patrolled the tracks to keep trespassers away--weeks before a series of accidents in which four pedestrians were killed by passenger trains.

The officers were transferred to Los Angeles Union Station in August, said Amtrak Police Capt. William Foster, who works in Los Angeles. Clifford Black, an Amtrak spokesman in Washington, said the officers were removed from San Diego because of “a lack of criminal activity and as a cost containment.”

The officers’ primary duty was to provide security at the downtown station and on the trains. But Black and other officials said they also patrolled the tracks between San Diego and Orange County, often citing people caught trespassing on the tracks.

Amtrak officials said it would be wrong to suggest that the deaths of four people in three separate incidents earlier this month could have been avoided if the officers had stayed in San Diego. After the most recent incident, the train company’s officials said they had no plans to introduce more police patrols, maintaining that it is up to pedestrians--not the train company--to avoid such accidents.

Yet Amtrak did provide such patrols until August.

Linda Miller, a spokeswoman for the San Diego County district attorney’s office, said prosecutors in the Vista office used to file about one case a month from citations issued by Amtrak officers.

The cases involved “people walking on the tracks, people climbing on (railroad) cars and people driving on the railroad right of way,” Miller said.

Two people were struck and killed in Encinitas on Sunday by a passenger train going about 87 m.p.h. The victims were among a group of five people who had gathered at the tracks to talk and drink beer.

A week earlier, a 16-year-old girl was killed in the same area by an Amtrak train. She was walking on the tracks with two companions.

At the beginning of the month, a Carlsbad man was killed on a trestle near San Onofre while pushing his bicycle. Two companions were able to scramble to safety.

Black and other Amtrak officials said the railroad agency’s officers were under no obligation to provide security on the tracks or downtown at the Santa Fe Depot.

The tracks are owned by the Santa Fe Railway.

“Santa Fe agents don’t routinely patrol the lines because of a lack of manpower,” said John O’Day, assistant regional manager for Santa Fe police. “We would not deny (Amtrak) the opportunity to patrol the main line. . . . Whenever they saw a problem, they would take care of it.”

O’Day said that only two Santa Fe agents are assigned to San Diego. Patrolling the tracks is “incidental” to the agents’ other investigations and duties, he added.

Ike Wilson, chairman of the United Transportation Union, Amtrak Local 84, is also a conductor who works on the passenger train commuter line between Los Angeles and San Diego. Wilson said Amtrak officers often responded in place of Santa Fe agents on security matters.

“What we (conductors) would do on our radio is call the Santa Fe dispatcher,” Wilson said. “They in turn would call the Santa Fe police. But I know of times when the Santa Fe police would not be available, and the Amtrak police would respond.”

The Amtrak officers “were not primarily” responsible for securing the railroad right of way, Black said.

“But they did occasionally patrol the tracks if the situation required it. During the recent track reconstruction in the area, there have been several incidents of vandalism. The Amtrak police did participate in dealing with that problem.”

Santa Fe and Amtrak officials pointed out that, in each of the recent instances, the people who were killed were trespassing.

“You would have to have a phalanx of police, virtually shoulder to shoulder, along the track. We just can’t do that. We can’t afford to assure 100% safety to the millions of people who live in the area,” Black said.

“The tragedies of last month, involving trespassers, are purely tragic coincidences.”

Santa Fe spokeswoman Cathy Westphal called trespassing on the tracks “an age-old problem.”

“It’s something the railroad has grappled with for a long time,” she said. “You can’t put up enough physical barriers to keep people off the tracks.”

Westphal said Santa Fe executives are hoping that Operation Lifesaver, an education program sponsored by several railroads, will keep people away from the tracks.

Amtrak had four officers assigned to San Diego until the end of 1989, when that number was trimmed to three. Art Lloyd, Amtrak spokesman in San Francisco, said the agency’s officers provided security at Santa Fe Depot “on an interim basis for five years.”

“There was no requirement for us to have security in San Diego, but we have been doing it for the past few years as a necessity,” Lloyd said.

Despite the recent deaths, Santa Fe and Amtrak officials said they have no plans to increase police patrols to keep trespassers away from the tracks.

“We couldn’t possibly accomplish that. Ultimately, there has to be some responsibility by individuals for their own safety,” Black said. “If you want to avoid being hit by a train, don’t walk on the railroad tracks.”