Death renews rail-safety issues

EDMONDS — The boys put pennies on the tracks and waited for the train.

David Pfeiffer, 14, stood on the adjacent set of tracks, facing the water, hands in his pockets. He, his 16-year-old brother, Steven, and a friend knew the trains well enough to know the Amtrak Empire Builder was running late.

Even though the boys had told their moms they'd be home by dark, they missed that deadline. They told each other they'd leave as soon as the train went by.

But David was standing on the wrong tracks. His friend, Ryan McManamy, had just enough time to shout David's name before the speeding train struck and killed him. Police investigators later that evening found the untouched coins.

Since their son's death Jan. 10, Sherry and Steven Pfeiffer of Lynnwood wonder whether more could be done to prevent deaths along the railroad lines that separate busy Puget Sound-area communities from the beaches so many residents love.

"That's the problem," said Steven Pfeiffer, "that such a wonderful place has to be next to something so dangerous."

Since 1997, 15 people have been killed by trains in Snohomish County. In September, a woman trying to catch her dog was killed on the tracks below Talbot Road in north Edmonds. In national rail statistics, such people are categorized as "trespassers not at highway rail crossings." Railroad-

safety managers emphasize that rail lines are private property and anyone on them is trespassing.

The spot where David Pfeiffer was killed is a popular beach access for residents of the Meadowdale neighborhood. On sunny days, cars line 76th Avenue West where it drops to the dock of the abandoned Meadowdale Marina. Only a slack, rusting cable and three bent, graffiti-covered "no trespassing" signs stand between the road and the rail line.

Edmonds police say people who want a shortcut to Meadowdale Beach County Park, a mile to the north, often walk down the tracks. The police do cite people for trespassing and often give verbal warnings to kids, said Sgt. Jeff Jones. But he said the police haven't had an "emphasis patrol" to enforce no-trespassing laws along the tracks since 1997.

Gus Melonas, a spokesman for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, which owns the tracks where Pfeiffer was killed, said the company cannot fence all 33,000 miles of its track in the country. With 25 freight and passenger trains a day traveling the main rail line along Puget Sound, he said, the company will continue to support educational efforts such as Operation Lifesaver, which takes its rail-safety message to local schools.

"We will continue to spread the word that trains can't stop," he said.

A California-based Amtrak spokeswoman said the Pfeiffer case remains under investigation. The state Utilities and Transportation Commission also is looking into the accident.

But attorneys who have represented the families of people killed by trains say the railroad should follow the model of the federal interstate-highway system and erect barriers to keep people away from speeding trains.

"These are preventable accidents," said Eugene Bolin, an attorney who represents the family of two girls killed by a train in Kent in 2000.

Bolin, who lives in Meadowdale, said that in his case, railroad attorneys "strenuously objected" to placing a fence between the tracks and the path where the girls were killed.

At Golden Gardens Park in Seattle, neighbors lobbied the city and the railroad for more than 10 years to install fencing along the tracks. The popular park was the site of "numerous accidents" over the years, said Mike Rowswell, the Utilities and Transportation Commission's rail-safety manager.

But only in 2001, after two women were killed within six weeks of each other, did the railroad agree to install a fence and locking gate. The fencing has been vandalized, but Rowswell said it has reduced the amount of trespassing "amazingly."

A fence doesn't prevent every accident, said Melonas, the railroad spokesman. "We partner with the state on an aggressive safety program" that is often more effective than fencing, he said.

Two decades ago, Dave Vander Linden dedicated a year of his life and helped raise $500,000 to construct a rail overpass after his 22-month-old son, who was lagging slightly behind his day-care group, was killed crossing the tracks between the parking lot and the beach at Picnic Point County Park, north of Edmonds. To get permission to erect the overpass, he flew to Burlington Northern headquarters in Minneapolis.

Railroad officials eventually agreed to the project, waived some insurance fees and provided flaggers. But Vander Linden said officials' initial reaction was, " 'We were there before your kid.' "

As David Pfeiffer's family made plans for his Monday memorial service, they imagined all kinds of safety measures that might have saved him. A fence with barbed wire. An overpass leading to the beach. A warning siren. A high concrete wall.

They remembered a 14-year-old who was growing into a young man. Shy and thoughtful. A clown who could fall in slow motion when giving a demonstration in martial-arts class at Edmonds Cyberschool.

His mom, Sherry, said the family chose Martin Luther King Jr. Day to celebrate David's life because, like the civil-rights leader, he leaves "a legacy of caring for others."

Lynn Thompson: 425-745-7807 or lthompson@seattletimes.com.