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Slow track of progress

Lack of funding and initiative by local agencies leaves many Valley railroad crossings unprotected, costing lives.

For Ray Sartini Jr., the end came on a hot August night at the Herndon Avenue crossing of the Union Pacific tracks. Two drivers went around the gates in front of a fast-moving train and lived to tell about it. The third, Sartini, did not.

For Jose "Pepe" Patino, the end came on a February afternoon at a Selma crossing that had flashing red signal lights but no gates. Whether Patino saw the lights and decided to drive his refrigerated truck through the crossing anyway will never be known. A southbound UP freight train killed him instantly.

Eight times in the past 15 years, drivers have narrowly avoided similar fates at the California Avenue crossing of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe line just south of downtown Fresno. They survived collisions of varying severity with trains that were passing through the ungated crossing.

In each accident, driver error was the likely cause.

But like many other railroad-crossing accidents, each might have been avoided if not for the fact that improvements at those and many other California crossings have been neglected due to chronic funding shortfalls and bureaucratic inertia.

Local governments in the San Joaquin Valley and across the state have made plans for bridges -- called "grade separations" -- at dozens of dangerous crossings. But for most of the past three decades, the state appropriation to pay for such projects has been frozen at $15 million annually, enough for no more than three or four per year.

Engineers have developed new types of gates and other protective devices for at-grade crossings, where streets intersect railroads. But funding for those life-saving measures remains scarce. And in 1999, the state Legislature took $5 million per year from a federal account that could pay for such devices and diverted it to an unrelated program.

Even the bit of funding that is available has a tendency to slip away from local officials who have other priorities.

The Selma crossing where Patino died -- the only one in town with no gates, just lights -- was the scene of injury accidents in late 1998 and early 1999 and a double fatal in 1993. One state official says his agency probably would grant the city immediate funding to install gates, if it asked. So far, Selma hasn't asked.

And the Fresno crossing where Ray Sartini Jr. died might have been turned into an overpass by now if city leaders hadn't walked away from a state funding pledge.

In March 1996, the city won a $9.5 million commitment from the state's grade-separation fund to build bridges at the Union Pacific crossings at Herndon and Shaw avenues. But it lost the money last year because it couldn't come up with local matching funds initially estimated at less than $1.7 million.

"There isn't enough money to go around," explained Raymond G. Salazar, the Fresno city engineer who signed both funding applications. "The bottom line is that there are just too many competing priorities."

Among the competing priorities: street paving, tree trimming and new curbs and sidewalks in selected Fresno neighborhoods; bike lanes and bus bays at dozens of locations; and new traffic signals and other modifications to various Fresno intersections.

All were financed with Fresno's share of the Measure C countywide sales tax and Proposition 111 statewide bond issue -- the main sources of discretionary public works spending. Large sums pass through those accounts each year -- about $3.8 million for Measure C alone. But year after year, after spending on other priorities, there was nothing left to match the state grants for the Shaw and Herndon crossings.

These funding shortages come even as railroads and government agencies nationwide are pointing to signs of progress in limiting the number of rail crossing accidents and casualties.

Numbers of accidents, injuries and fatalities have dropped sharply since the 1970s, both nationally and in California. But much of the decline came during the late 1970s and early 1980s, and is widely attributed not just to safety improvements but also to industry consolidation and track abandonment.

In the last decade, the decline has leveled off by most measures. California rail crossing accidents varied from 126 to 193 per year in the 1990s, and ended the decade near the middle of that range at 156. Injuries and fatalities followed similar patterns, according to statistics from the Federal Railroad Administration.

Safety experts say further reductions in rail-crossing accidents will be hard to come by unless the crossings that remain are upgraded with better gates and other barriers, or replaced by bridges.

Throughout the state, local governments have struggled to find enough money to make such improvements.

Two main programs help local agencies pay for rail-crossing projects. One, called Section 130 after the passage in federal law authorizing it, provides federal funding for 90% to 100% of the cost of improved signals and gates at existing rail crossings. The other, underwritten by the state, pays 80% of the cost of grade separations, which replace rail crossings with bridges.

The state Public Utilities Commission selects projects for both programs using a formula that considers accident histories and other measurements of hazard, such as volumes of train and vehicular traffic.

Together, the two funds total $25 million per year. But PUC and local officials say that's far too little for a state with 34 million people, 26 million motor vehicles and more than 10,000 railroad crossings. Each year, 40 to 60 projects are submitted for grade-separation funding, but only three or four get it. Section 130 underwrites more projects, about 30 to 40 per year. But that program also has a long waiting list.

"There's just not enough funding," PUC engineer Daniel Loo said. "People from local agencies and railroads call me up and say, 'Daniel, can I submit a project under Section 130?' And I have to say, 'No, we're booked up through 2003.'"

The shortfall worsened in 1999, when the Legislature earmarked a portion of the state's federal transportation funds for a two-year "Safe Routes to School" program that pays for new sidewalks, crosswalks, bike lanes and "traffic calming" devices such as speed bumps. One program that lost funding as a result was Section 130, which dropped from an annual appropriation of $15 million to $10 million.

Section 130 does allow local agencies to move to the front of the priority list by getting emergency funding in cases where hazards are extreme. But local agencies still have to apply for the money.

Some have never done so.

Take, for example, the city of Selma, home to one of the San Joaquin Valley's most dangerous railroad crossings.

Late on a Thursday afternoon in February 1999, Jose "Pepe" Patino was driving a load of packaged meats and cheeses through downtown Selma in an Isuzu refrigerator truck owned by his employer, Bridgford Foods of Anaheim.

Driving west on North Street, he reached the Union Pacific tracks at the only crossing in town that isn't equipped with gates -- in fact, the only public crossing that lacks gates on the 33 miles of Union Pacific mainline track in Fresno County.

A witness told authorities that Patino, who lived nearby, stopped at the tracks and began to creep forward as he looked to his left. Meanwhile, a 56-car freight train with three locomotives bore down at 45 mph from his right.

The train struck Patino's truck on the passenger side with enough force to partially tear the cab from the refrigerated box behind it. The driver died at the scene.

Patino's death was not an isolated occurrence. Two other crashes had occurred at the same crossing in the previous four months. One person was injured in each. And in 1993, a driver and his passenger died trying to race through the crossing in front of a southbound train. Before stopping, the train pushed the wreck through three subsequent crossings, each one block apart.

Despite that long accident history, City Manager D-B Heusser said Selma has no plans to apply for funds to add gates or other improvements at the North Street crossing.

Heusser declined to comment further because of a lawsuit filed by Bridgford's insurer. In its defense, the city is arguing that it was powerless to improve the crossing because state law puts railroad crossings under PUC jurisdiction. But the law merely requires PUC approval before any improvements can be made. And under Section 130, sponsorship by a city, county or railroad is specifically required before funding can be granted.

Loo, from the PUC, expressed surprise that the city had not already applied for funding: "I think they should apply. If you've had an accident at a crossing, you'll get funding, especially if there aren't any gates."

Union Pacific spokesman Mike Furtney said his company has no plans for the crossing and knows of no current plans on the city's part: "It looks as if there were some preliminary discussions with Selma a year or so ago, but nothing ever came out of it."

Similar delays have plagued other proposed improvements in railroad crossings, largely as a result of the lack of funding.

In 1970, a consultant examined the Burlington Northern Santa Fe mainline that bisects downtown Fresno and Fig Garden and identified 29 crossings that needed closing or safeguards such as gates.

Today, more than 30 years later, the city is still waiting for Section 130 funding to install gates on the last four of those crossings, at McKenzie and Hammond avenues north of downtown and California and Hamilton avenues to the south.

The California Avenue crossing, in an industrial area south of downtown Fresno, has been the scene of eight accidents since 1987, with a total of four injuries and more than $50,000 in property damage. It is scheduled to receive gates sometime during the current fiscal year.

The same consultant's report strongly urged the city to remove railroad tracks from Diana and Q streets, where passenger and freight trains shared the street with vehicle traffic. That wasn't done until 1991.

And as late as last June, five minor streets and alleys, none with gates and some with only a "railroad crossing" sign, still crossed the tracks between Divisadero and Olive. Five others had been closed just one year earlier.

Fresno city officials say that money is again the issue. More than 40 years ago, the city received an $840,000 franchise fee from the railroad for use of the city right-of-way and earmarked it for crossing improvements. But the money ran out long before all the needed improvements could be made.

"This is not a unique problem," said Carl Kassabian, city construction engineer. "Every city in the state could make use of more money than what is available."

Burlington Northern Santa Fe spokeswoman Lena Kent said her company is aggressive about improving railroad crossings or getting them closed -- she said 635 BNSF crossings were closed last year -- and is watching the city's efforts closely.

"Hopefully, the money will come through and the crossings will be improved," she said.

The funding shortfall is most severe in the grade-separation program. Building bridges to carry railroad tracks over roads or under them is the only way to eliminate the risk of a vehicle-train collision, but it's not cheap.

The average cost of 41 high-priority projects identified by the PUC in 1998 was $14.4 million; their total cost was $600 million. Yet to pay for those projects, the state appropriated only $15 million -- the same amount as every year since 1974, except for a $25 million annual appropriation from 1979 to 1981.

Had the 1974 funding level simply kept pace with the rate of inflation in construction costs, it would now be more than $35 million. Had it kept pace with the overall inflation rate, it would be more than $50 million.

State funding is supposed to cover 80% of the cost, with the rest to come from the railroad and the sponsoring agency in shares of 10% each. But the law also says that no single project may receive more than one-third of the available funds -- meaning that the actual cap on state funding for any one project is typically $5 million. Local agencies have to make up the difference from their own funds.

Despite that limitation, the state turns away applicants by the dozens for lack of sufficient funding. The PUC has long advocated an increase in funding. And in 1999, the Legislature considered a bill by Assembly Member Tom Calderon, D-Montebello, that would have raised the annual appropriation to $60 million. It passed the Assembly 75-5 but lost out to other priorities in the Senate Transportation Committee.

"My sense was that for a number of the members, it was a question of a trade-off between this and some other transportation projects," said Sen. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, a co-sponsor of the bill and member of the Senate Transportation Committee.

As a result, the fund remains at $15 million per year and the wait for grade-separation funding remains years long. No one knows how many local agencies never bother applying because of the long waits.

"There are about 10,000 or 11,000 grade crossings in the state right now, and if you're only funding three per year, it's not going to make much of a dent," said Ken Koss, director of the PUC's Rail Safety and Carriers Division.

Fresno County made initial plans for bridges at six Union Pacific crossings in the 1960s. Today, it has completed only one -- Clovis Avenue -- and has been awarded state money for just one other, at Chestnut Avenue. There are no immediate prospects for work on two others, at Mountain View and Manning avenues.

The final two -- Shaw and Herndon avenues -- are now under city jurisdiction. Both won state matching funds in 1996. But that was as far as it went, as city officials decided against using their discretionary public works funds on the required local match.

Among the projects they funded instead was another rail grade-separation, now under construction, on the Santa Fe main line at Shaw and Marks. But also receiving city funds, almost $1 million in the last fiscal year alone, were a series of "neighborhood improvement projects" to rebuild curbs and sidewalks, repave streets and trim trees in selected parts of town. And in the current fiscal year, the city appropriated more than $1.3 million to open the north end of Fulton Mall to vehicles.

Year after year, when city leaders deliberated over the annual budget, projects such as those were assigned a higher priority than the Shaw and Herndon grade separations, even though without a local match the state funds could not be used.

"Each year, the Shaw and Herndon projects came up short," Fresno engineer Salazar said. "There was no way to fund the local match. And each year, of course, the size of the local match increased because of inflation."

In September 1995, city officials estimated that overpasses would cost $6.8 million at Herndon and $5.6 million at Shaw. With the railroad's share, that left less than $1.7 million for the city to fund.

Four years later, those costs had risen to $8.6 million for Herndon and $10.1 million for Shaw. Because of the $5 million cap on state participation, the city's share increased from $1.1 million to $2.7 million for Herndon and from $564,700 to $4.1 million for Shaw, for a total city share of almost $7 million.

In any event, by the time the city got state funding for the Herndon Avenue overpass, it was too late to save Ray Sartini Jr. His accident occurred in August 1996, just five months after the state funding was approved.

But the city had applied three times before -- in 1982, 1985 and 1993. Each time, it was turned away by the state in favor of projects with an even higher priority ranking. It also applied three times previously for the Shaw project -- in 1985, 1987 and 1993.

Now, officials have asked the City Council for $25,000 to apply once more for state funding to build the Shaw Avenue crossing. But they remain doubtful that they could come up with the required local match as long as the state's grade-crossing fund remains limited to $15 million and the cap for each project stays at $5 million.

"I don't know if Fresno will ever be able to do another grade separation if that's not increased," city construction engineer Kassabian said.

Ray Sartini Sr. had planned to retire at 62 and let Ray Jr., his eldest son, take over the family business producing silk-screened and embroidered shirts, caps and other custom athletic apparel. But his son's tragic mistake prevented that.

On that hot Friday night, Ray Jr. left work early. An order for 15,000 Cross-City Race shirts awaited his attention Monday.

He went out for dinner with a friend, then home. Later, for unknown reasons, he got in his car and drove west to where Herndon Avenue crosses the Union Pacific tracks at Golden State Boulevard.

The gates were down, the lights flashing. But as Ray Jr., 33, sat in a line of cars, no train was in sight.

One impatient driver went around the gates, then another.

Then Ray Jr. reached the front of the line and made the final decision of his life. As he steered around the gates, a 46-car train pulled by four locomotives approached from the north at 45 mph.

The lead engine caught Sartini's 1987 Honda Accord in the right rear door and pushed the car a half-mile down the track, killing him instantly.

His father's spirit was crushed, partly because of the knowledge that his son's own actions were responsible for his death.

"We know he was wrong," he said. "There's no question. And he paid with his life."

And for that reason, even though he says better gates or other safeguards might have saved his son's life, Sartini's father is uncomfortable being an activist for railroad crossing safety.

"It's difficult to be, because he broke the law," Sartini said. "We wish there were double gates. But it was his fault."

Ray Sartini Sr. is 63 now. Under the schedule he had envisioned, he would have handed over the business to his son more than a year ago.

In the back room of Sartini's business, Athletic Designs, one elaborate machine stitched brightly colored embroidery into the crown of a stack of baseball caps. A few yards away, a silkscreen painted dazzling artwork onto the front of T-shirts.

It looked like a thriving business. But Sartini recalled a time when business was better, when he and his son worked side by side to build a family institution.

"These last four or five years have been horrible," Sartini said. "Since the accident, my heart hasn't been in it. My head hasn't been in it. ... I come into this building and I see him everywhere. Ray's desk. Ray's phone."

On Monday, 25 years after he started it and almost five years after Ray Jr.'s death, Sartini sold the family business.

The reporter can be reached at rclemings@fresnobee.com or 441-6371.