On Thursday, August 8, 2013, Burbank Police Department Traffic Bureau personnel along with officers from the Union Pacific Police Department and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies conducted a joint education and enforcement operation within the City of Burbank.
The enforcement was carried out by eight Burbank motors along with one Sergeant, two Union Pacific Officers and 1 LASD deputy.
Police issued 52 hazardous citations issued in and around the RR crossings while there were 12 advisals given. There were also three who were given misdemeanor citations.
Of the incidents, seven were railroad related (such as 22526(d)22451(a)) while others were (throwing a lit object-cigarrette) from a vehicle, seatbelt, and cell phone usage.
The rail lines within the city are active 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The heavy daily load of vehicular traffic traversing these grade crossings is potentially hazardous and a cause of concern for safe railroad operations. With literally thousands of passenger cars and commercial trucks crossing these rail lines each day, grade crossing violations are commonplace and collisions have occurred.
Motorists who stop on the tracks or evade gate-crossing warnings may be the cause of a train-vehicle collision that will almost always result in serious injury or death and delay train and vehicle traffic.
The enforcement operation concentrated their efforts at the rail crossings and right-of-ways in the city, due to prior incidents at these crossings. The locations of primary focus were the vehicle crossings at Buena Vista and Vanowen, Buena Vista and San Fernando, and the pedestrian crossing at the downtown transit depot.
