How many people killed by caltrain

Along with the tragedy of a life lost, each incident exacts a mental toll on train operators and staff and can cause serious disruptions for thousands of commuters. Agency officials say they have launched a number of efforts to prevent fatal collisions, most visibly with signs at stations and at some crossings that direct people who might be contemplating suicide to support hotlines.

If you are struggling emotionally or in crisis, there is help. Call The pilot was delayed until the agency phases out its older fleet of train cars. Caltrain, meanwhile, is in the process of raising the tracks in some areas to eliminate potentially dangerous street-level crossings, but billions more dollars would be needed to complete that work, according to spokesman Dan Lieberman.

The clear barriers would have sliding doors that would be closed whenever trains were out of the station, then open only once the train arrived. It would make BART the first major public transit agency in the United States to adopt the barriers, though others have considered it, and the design is in place in some European and Asian cities, such as Singapore and Copenhagen. BART had drawn up plans for a project trying out the design at the 12th Street Station in Oakland sometime in the next five years.

This is an alarming number considering these deaths have all occurred after May and we still have a number of months left in the year.

Most recently, a man driving a Honda Civic was struck by a Caltrain after his vehicle broke down on some rail tracks and died instantly. Other railroad companies have been involved in far fewer fatal railroad accidents, so clearly Caltrain needs to take heed of their safety awareness month and thoroughly examine their safety procedures. Our firm has seen the devastating injuries that trains can cause.

Engineers are often powerless to avoid obstacles because the train can take up to a mile to stop. However, no line has experienced the.

Thirteen people have died along the tracks this year, more deaths in eight months than in any year since In all, 90 people have been killed in the past eight years between San Francisco and the end of the line in Gilroy. More than half of the 90 used the train to commit suicide, while others died as a result of reckless gambles, like driving around crossing gates or, in failed tests of bravado, misjudged the timing of a leap to safety.

For some, a simple mistake or momentary distraction led to disaster, like crossing tracks after a train passed only to be hit by one coming the other way. Mike Nevin , a Caltrain director and San Mateo County supervisor, said Caltrain operates an aging system in the heart of a heavily urbanized area on a limited budget. The long-term plan is to build more rail overpasses and underpasses, install more fences and improve warnings at crossings, he said.

Meanwhile, Caltrain and law enforcement officials are preaching safety, promising to issue citations to trespassers and installing warning signs every feet. Nevin said officials are also considering putting up suicide prevention hotline numbers along the tracks. Critics say the system -- the majority of which runs at street level by schools, homes and businesses -- invites disaster.

The family of a year-old woman killed last year blames the railroad for failing "to properly warn pedestrians of approaching trains in a conspicuous manner," according to a claim her family filed against Caltrain.

Sarah Mansouri was wearing headphones when she stepped in front of a train at the Howard Avenue crossing in Burlingame. Caltrain, meanwhile, plans to add 10 trains a day to its schedule next month, raising to 78 the number of trains each weekday. Plans are also in the works to replace diesel locomotives with speedier -- and quieter -- electric engines, which could increase the risk to those who venture across the tracks. Collins was an engineer for just two weeks when someone used his train to commit suicide, he recalled, and once his train tore the pack right off the back of a man sitting too close to the tracks.

Another time, he was sure he had struck a woman who spun away like a rag doll.