BY DAVE PRICE
Daily Post Editor
A cornerstone of good government is the California Public Records Act, which requires government agencies to release public documents with limited exceptions.
The law promotes transparency and allows the public to hold officials accountable.
On Dec. 2, the Daily Post filed a request for records related to Caltrain deaths in 2024.
The Post made the request because Caltrain started a new policy in May of no longer telling the public when a person was hit.
Was the policy a success? By our count, there were at least 18 deaths on the Caltrain tracks in 2024, which would make it one of the worst years in the history of the railroad. But we wanted to check that figure against official records. Three months later, Caltrain continues to refuse to release this information.
At one point, Caltrain said it would produce the records by the end of February. Then it said it would release them on Friday, March 7. Now it says they’ll provide them at the end of this week.
Why would Caltrain hide this information if the new policy was a success?
Agencies can be sued and ordered to pay attorneys’ fees of a plaintiff for violating the California Public Records Act.
Caltrain’s board should instruct Executive Director Michelle Bouchard to release these records immediately.
Editor Dave Price’s column appears on Mondays.
Instead of hiding information, it would be great if Caltrain decided to become part of the effort to solve this problem.
If we had separated the tracks from ground level, either through a viaduct or trenching, when we began talking about that 20 years ago, this wouldn’t be a problem. Our elected officials never seem to get anything done. Sadly, the proximity of a means to suicide still exists. It doesn’t matter if there are 10 deaths a year or 50, just one is too many.
This is censorship. Call it what it is. The bureaucrats think the public can’t handle the truth. Yet this is an agency that operates on public property and is largely supported with tax dollars, such as a sales tax. If they get away with this, they’ll claim they’ve solved the suicide problem when they haven’t. Don’t give up Daily Post!!!