SMART chief pledges to consider more rail safety measures following two deaths on tracks

The head of Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit promised a full investigation of the deaths of two people - a female pedestrian and male bicyclist - struck and killed by trains last week at the same Rohnert Park intersection.

In his first remarks about the fatalities Thursday and Friday on the SMART tracks, general manager Farhad Mansourian on Saturday said he’s sending a team to the Golf Course Drive crash site on Monday to investigate safety measures, and pedestrian and cyclist behavior at the intersection.

Three of the six people struck and killed along the 43-mile passenger rail line since SMART started service in August 2017 have died at that intersection.

“We will figure out what else can be done, what else should be done,” he said, including possibly hiring more safety officers to monitor the rail line and train stations. “We cannot physically stop you, but we can physically slow you down. We have got to figure out what else we can do before you get (to the crossing).”

A preliminary review of last week’s back-to-back fatal crashes found that the flashing safety lights, the guardrails and the ringing alarms at the crossing all were functioning properly, he said.

It appears that the pedestrian and cyclist either ignored or were unaware of the warning signs at the railroad crossing. Transit agency officials have to figure out how to address such “human behavior,” he said.

“We put in red lights, gates, bells that ding, ding, ding” and when gates were lowered “people still chose to go under them, around them ... to beat the train,” Mansourian said.

On Friday, shortly before 6:42 a.m., an unidentified man riding a bicycle was struck by a southbound SMART train. Less than 24 hours earlier, Jimmie Joy Qualls, 30, was run over by a train after she walked under a gate crossing arm and then was hit on the tracks by a northbound train believed to be going between 65 mph to 70 mph. Qualls was apparently homeless, and earlier this week was warned multiple times by a SMART code enforcement officer not to walk on the train tracks.

On Saturday at the Golf Course Drive train crossing, the recent deaths were still fresh on the minds of several homeless people in the area. A few of the homeless were parked in trucks, cars and RVs at Roberts Lake Park & Ride lot.

Bruce Mills, 66, said he saw Qualls on Thursday walking around the parking lot, saying strange things like, “I’m looking for my mommy.” Mills, a west Sonoma County native, has been homeless for a few years and lives out of his truck.

“I’m sorry that she got killed,” he said. “But I’m glad it was quick for her. The train couldn’t have stopped if it wanted to anyway.”

In the far corner of the parking lot, the side closest to the rail crossing, Anthony Gondola, 45, tinkered with the dead battery of his truck. Gondola, a construction worker who has been homeless for about three years and has been staying at the Park & Ride lot for about five weeks, said some homeless people cross the train tracks at Golf Course Drive to get to the bathroom at the nearby gas station, or to go to stores like the Walmart on the west side of Highway 101.

“I don’t know what they could do to make it safer” at the SMART rail crossings, he said, holding his 17-year-old dog, Ace. “Maybe they could put up handrails that could keep people off the tracks. ... You think they would fence it maybe.”

Last summer during the first of the three fatal crashes at the Golf Course Drive intersection, Joseph De Frates, 29, was wearing noise-cancelling headphones and looking down when he walked on the tracks into the path of a northbound train. His death was ruled an accident.

In response, Mansourian said SMART placed yellow and black stenciled signs on the ground at the pedestrial crossing stating “Watch for trains.” He said barriers that impede the easy flow of pedestrians and cyclists could be the next step at the deadly crossing.

“The issues we’ve been dealing with are of human behavior,” he said. “Cars that go under gates, bikes that go around gates, we have to figure out what to do. This is a safe system; if we need to do more, we will do more, no question about it. There is nothing more critical to SMART than safety.”

Mansourian said SMART offcials aren’t opposed to spending money on additional safety measures. He said the agency’s board spent $50 million on positive train control - an advanced technological system meant to prevent train derailments and train-to-train collisions - before it was even required by Congress.

Mansourian said SMART officials work closely with local police, fire and public works agencies to review rail safety issues and expect to collaborate on more safety efforts because of last week’s deaths.

In March, SMART employees and labor union leaders raised concerns about safety along the train tracks and their inability to prevent accidents. Union officials said there’s a lack of SMART safety officers monitoring the rail line, running from Sonoma County airport south to San Rafael, for violations that could lead to the injury or death of a pedestrian or cyclist.

Although Mansourian said more safety officers would probably not have prevented the recent deaths, he said he is open to considering adding more officers.

“In these two cases, based on the briefing I got, more safety officers would not have helped unless they were at that spot at that moment,” he said. But, “we have to look at everything. We need to look at everything. If that’s something we need to do differently, then we need to do it differently.”

Mansourian expressed his “deepest condolences” to the families of the two people killed last week, and said the fatal incidents have shaken the SMART organization.

“Our heart goes out to the families, our prayers go to them,” SMART’s leader said. “This affects everybody, the families, the entire organization, the boad of directors and the community.”

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno.