Rohnert Park drops plan to ask SMART to reduce train’s speed through fatal intersection

Over impassioned pleas from Rohnert Park’s mayor, the City Council on Tuesday rejected a plan to send a letter to SMART requesting the commuter rail agency slow trains through an intersection where five people have died, including one person last month.

The City Council earlier this month agreed to fund a consultant study to review the safety of Rohnert Park’s three ground-level rail crossings, including the one at Golf Course Drive that has been the site of half the rail system’s 10 fatalities in two-plus years of operations. But spurred on by appeals from the city’s public safety officers, Mayor Gina Belforte strived to go further, seeking a public meeting with staff and policymakers at Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit, and a reduction of the train’s speed through town.

“What I’m trying to do is respond to my community. What I’m trying to do is save somebody’s life,” Belforte told her colleagues Tuesday. “And I think it’s important that between now and the time the study is done, that we do everything we can to try and help somebody from not committing suicide.”

Her four fellow council members, however, said they did not believe the train’s speed - routinely reaching more than 65 mph as it passes through the intersection near Commerce Boulevard - is a leading factor responsible for the three accidental deaths and two ruled suicides to date. Veteran Councilwoman Pam Stafford said conversations with residents over the past two weeks convinced her to wait for the study results before asking SMART for any other changes right now.

“At this point, I don’t really think that we should be talking about slowing down the train,” said Stafford. “One thing I do agree with, though, is I wish SMART would sit and talk with us.”

Just one member of the public spoke about the possibility of the city submitting the letter to the SMART board of directors during the comment period. In those remarks, Steve Birdlebough, who co-founded the supporter group Friends of SMART, advocated for the council to work with SMART toward its expanded suicide-prevention efforts instead of against the operation of the rail agency’s precisely timed system.

“It’s a very complex issue. There are no easy answers to this,” Birdlebough said of the deaths. “Rather than pursuing efforts to get the speed of the trains changed … your folks’ attention (should) be on the preventative aspects. I think putting your emphasis behind that rather than have an argument with SMART on this issue is the way to go.”

Belforte concurred that Sonoma County has significant problems with its behavioral health interventions and that fixing those issues will take time. As mayor, however, she said, it was her duty to explore any form of relief, including reducing the train’s speed to help change perceptions about the location where people have been struck and killed repeatedly.

Following the Council’s 4-1 vote to scrap the letter, Councilman Jake Mackenzie said he had no added concerns that more people will die because of the speed of the train at the troublesome intersection. He also called for a pause in discussion of deaths at the Golf Course Drive crossing until the spring, when results from outside safety study are expected back.

“I still do not believe that the slowing of the train is a resolution,” said Mackenzie, who was previously a longtime member of the SMART board. “There should be a formal discussion between the city and SMART to make sure that the ultimate in safety precautions are available at these three at-grade crossings going through the city.”