BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Caltrain’s Chief Safety Officer Mike Meader has a lot of ideas for stopping people from going on the tracks — more police officers and cameras, calming blue lights at stations, platforms with tiny pyramids that are nearly impossible to walk across and even underground fibers that can detect movements.
Already, Caltrain is making less expensive safety improvements, like putting out pavement markings and asking Google Maps to tell drivers to go past the tracks on Churchill Avenue in Palo Alto.
Caltrain reported 10 deaths on the tracks in 2022, 15 deaths in 2023 and 19 deaths last year — the most since 2015.
Caltrain’s decision to keep from the public news about deaths on the tracks hasn’t reduced the rate of fatalities much.
But next month, Caltrain will put up over 700 signs advertising the nationwide 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, Meader told Caltrain’s board yesterday.
All of Meader’s ideas will go into a “trespasser prevention safety plan” that will be finalized in December, although Caltrain board members asked Meader to keep working on a title that’s respectful and serious.
“Obviously the people who are caught on the track or who access the track intentionally are trespassing,” board member Steve Heminger said. “But I don’t think that’s the most notable thing about them. They very often meet an untimely death.”
“We should be honest — it’s suicides,” said Adrian Brandt, a member of Caltrain’s Citizens Advisory Committee.
Actually, a study by the Mineta Transportation Institute says that between August 1992 and December 2009 about 64% of train deaths were suicides. The others were accidents.
Meader said the safety plan will encompass anyone going on the tracks, whether it’s intentional, unintentional or in a car.
Meader said he’s following the “three E’s of rail safety” — engineering, enforcement and education.
New perspective
Meader was hired by Caltrain in August 2023 after working as a safety officer for five years at the Regional Transportation District in Denver.
Meader said other agencies have larger transit police forces and more technology like video surveillance.
Caltrain relies on the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office for enforcement.
“It’s a matter of dollars. We have an already very significant bill we get from the work the San Mateo County sheriff does,” Caltrain’s Executive Director Michelle Bouchard said yesterday.
Caltrain has 51 miles of track, 31 stations and 71 at-grade crossings, Meader said.
Board member David Canepa said he’s interested in an app for riders to report issues.
“You can’t be everywhere, but to have this technology is critical,” he said.
Blue lights
Caltrain is looking at replacing white LED lights with blue lights at some stations because psychological studies have found blue lights have a calming effect, Meader said.
Denver switched to blue lights and it helped, Meader said.
“So people who might be stressed out, people who are maybe experiencing some things — blue lighting tends to bring that stress down,” Meader said. “We’re not taking anything off the table.”
Caltrain is also looking at adding counselors and social workers to transit police teams, and having trauma counseling for Caltrain employees who are involved in a strike, Meader said.
Reducing access to tracks
“Trespasser panels” that are made of small pyramids and “virtually impossible to walk across” are also an option at crossings, Meader said.
Last year, Caltrain decided it would stop reporting to the public when a train killed a person in an attempt to reduce copycat suicides, where a person decides to kill themself after hearing a news report about another suicide. However, in 18 of 19 cases last year, there were no copycat deaths if a copycat is defined as one person taking their life within three days of an initial death.
Media outlets were able to learn about train deaths through tips from the public, confirmed by police or fire departments.
After the news blackout began, the death rate remained higher than in previous years.
19 Caltrain deaths in 2024
Jan. 18, Hayward Station, age 40
Jan. 26, East Meadow Drive Crossing in Palo Alto, age 48
Feb. 13, Hillsdale Station, age 55
Feb. 20, East Meadow Drive Crossing in Palo Alto, age 16
March 1, Fair Oaks Lane in Menlo Park, age 29
March 12, Chestnut Street in Redwood City, age 26
March 31, Redwood City Station, electric train undergoing test hits and kills a person, age 31
April 6, San Carlos, age 39
April 12, California Avenue in Palo Alto, age 41
May 12, Belmont, age 54
June 30, South San Francisco Station, age 25
Aug. 6, Mountain View, age 44
Aug. 11, Menlo Park, age 17
Aug. 28, Whipple Avenue in San Mateo, age 43
Sept. 20, Mary Avenue in Sunnyvale, age 56
Sept. 27, Villa Terrace in San Mateo, age 19
Nov. 19, South of Redwood City Station, age 27
Nov. 20, North of Menlo Park, age 70
Dec. 11, Mountain View station, age 24
If we’re condidering new ideas, lets add an air bag to the nose of a train that would inflate and catch anyone on the tracks! I don’t know what it would cost, but it would be a bargain if it saved just one life!
Excellent idea. The trespasser would still face possible serious injury though such an airbag ought to increase survivability. If Caltrain has already considered this option, it would be interesting to know why it was not chosen as a solution.
Longer term, we need to grade separate and fully seal the corridor. This will also include automated cameras and intrusion detection. That is the best (but most expensive) solution for this, unfortunately.
Here’s the best solution. Don’t talk about suicides on the tracks. Stop the media from reporting them. Never publicly comment on them. If we ignore them, they will go away! Sound silly? I’m sure we can find some junk science to support this idea. When a train kills somebody, just tell the passengers that they didn’t see what they thought they saw, and the train stopped for maintenance. This strategy will make it easier for Caltrain board members like Pat Burt and Ray mueller to pretend they don’t have a problem. And it will preserve real estate values. Who wants to buy an expensive home in suicide alley?
OK, spend billions on the crossings. Then people who want to end their lives will have to walk a couple hundred feet up or down the tracks. Lunacy and hubris.