Fixed as they are to rails, trains can't turn away from an accident. That creates a helpless feeling for operators because if they see someone or something on the tracks ahead of them, all they can do is brake and wait for the impact, Johnson says.
Listen, in the spare language of a police report, to the Blue Line's William McClendon, who in June was operating a train that struck and killed Troy Well Young, a pedestrian, at 103rd Street and Grandee Avenue in Watts.
"I was traveling 35 to 40 mph when I observed the man walking east along the south sidewalk area," the 55-year-old train operator said. McClendon said he had been sounding his horn, but Young didn't turn away. "I began emergency braking. He kept walking. He was looking south. There was nothing else I could do. I turned my head and heard the impact."
Johnson hopes Walden will finish his career without an accident, but he is less than optimistic. Among other lessons, Walden will learn the phrase "pray for the dead," a grim mnemonic reminder of the cadence that trainmen use for their warning sequence: two long horn blasts, followed by a short one, then another long one.
"It isn't a matter of if you have an accident, it is when," he says matter-of-factly.
So many accidents happen that the Blue Line has claimed more lives over the last five years than the state's other four light-rail systems combined, according to Public Utilities Commission records. These statistics do not include heavy rail, such as MetroLink or Amtrak trains.
Nationally, the casualties are so high that Los Angeles accounts for a disproportionate share of America's light-rail accidents, according to the Federal Transit Administration.
Officials seeking to improve the Blue Line's safety record acknowledge that some problems are not fixable, such as the Blue Line's location in Los Angeles County's densely populated urban and industrial core. They say that taking the trains off the streets and creating a grade separation would dramatically help, but assert that there is no money available to elevate the tracks or put them below street level.
Working to Eliminate Casualties
Locked into what now is a mature, 10-year-old system that defies a massive overhaul, the MTA struggles to bring down Blue Line casualties with rigorous training of operators like Walden, aggressive law enforcement, and constant tinkering with fences, horn sounds, signal lights, traffic gates and other safety hardware.
