ART – Rail Safety Campaign

The MTS Rail Team has made some significant strides to improve safety and prevent accidents in the past year, which has resulted in a historically low accident record. A big part of the improvement came from an initiative called Anticipate, Recognize, Take Action (ART).

“ART is a new effort to heighten awareness and change behaviors of both train operators and car drivers,” said Wayne Terry, MTS Rail chief operating officer. “With the growth of downtown San Diego, there are more people than ever before walking, driving, riding bikes around our rail system. We worked on solutions that involved new ideas from all levels - managers, supervisors and train operators.”

Challenge:

MTS Rail had a big challenge – illegal turns in downtown San Diego were the highest cause of incidents between autos and LRVs. C Street is a unique corridor that allows Trolleys and cars to travel side-by-side in the same direction. Sometimes cars ignore the signs and rules of the road, and illegally make turns in front of our trains. This is not only illegal, but very dangerous.

Solutions:

• Delineators: To raise awareness about these intersection points, the MTS Facilities team installed delineators at key intersections along C Street. It’s a visual reminder for cars to pay attention to the road and a good safety deterrent for cutting in front of oncoming Trolleys.
• Eye-Level Signage: Most of the street signs in downtown San Diego are affixed to light poles and traffic signals. The signs often go unnoticed because they aren’t at eye level. MTS Rail’s Safety Department in cooperation with the City of San Diego, identified and implemented eye level signs at intersections along Park Boulevard and C Street.
• Identifying Hazard Trends: MTS Rail conducted a review of the top three locations of emergency brake applications in each quarter of the year to provide operators with up to date information on hazard trends.
• Walk the Talk: MTS Rail safety managers require all train operators to participate in a walk-through of San Diego’s downtown corridor for initial certification and bi-annual recertification. This provides operators with a better perspective on line-of-sight issues for pedestrians and autos, as well as train awareness.

Results:

Since the implementation of the downtown safety enhancements and training, MTS Rail has experienced a 66% reduction in illegal turns and a 35% reduction in accidents when compared to FY2016. What’s more? The team enjoyed accident-free months in April and June! The final count for MTS Rail was only 15 total accidents in fiscal year 2017 (July 2016 – June 2017). And there was a stretch of 75 days of accident-free driving – one of the longest stretches in agency history!

Congrats to the MTS Rail team for identifying a challenge, implementing a solution and achieving positive results!