Tragedy Averted

I occasionally board Caltrain in South San Francisco and fortunately was away in LA on August 24th.

A southbound train roared through the SSF station and nearly hit northbound passengers crossing the tracks.

Caltrain says the "very serious" near-accident was the first of its kind in the modern history of the popular commuter line and has led to major safety changes and left two engineers on leave. [snip]

The station is old and, unlike most Caltrain stops, does not have a gate or crossing arms that come down to prevent passengers from crossing active tracks. Usually engineers radio each other or use headlight signals to ensure the station is clear before an express train zooms through, but that apparently didn't happen this time.

At that hour Caltrain commuters disembark to shuttles that will take them to South City biotech firms. We were lucky tragedy was averted.

Union Pacific freight cars stored at SSF.