A summer surge of deaths has been tough on rail workers
It’s been a rough summer on the tracks of Bay Area rail transit systems. During a 26- day stretch between June 28 and July 22, nine people perished, either by accident or suicide, on the tracks of Caltrain, BART, the Altamont Corridor Express and the Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit.
On July 22, three died, two on the Caltrain commute line (first in Burlingame, then in Mountain View), the other on the ACE route (in Union City).
A spokesman for Caltrain, Alex Eisenhart, said two pedestrian deaths on one day for Caltrain is unusual.
The surge in fatalities along the region’s rail lines is disturbing in and of itself. But it’s especially grim for the people who work on and near the trains themselves.
Eisenhart said Caltrain, like other rail systems, has approved practices and protocols in place to assist engineers, conductors and other employees who have to deal with these deadly situations, which can be particularly ugly given the high speeds.
“Our workers know that this is a reality before they take these jobs,” he said. Caltrain hiring officials make the risks clear right upfront, he said.
Nonetheless, Eisenhart added, everyone reacts differently to trauma on the tracks, so counseling and other coping mechanisms are available for any employee who may need assistance in the wake of a train track fatality.
Three days of leave are provided automatically, and more are available if requested, he explained. “There are plenty of resources for them,” he said.
At the rate the summer is going, those helpful resources may become increasingly handy.
Flailing finances
How are your finances? Are you borrowing and spending too much and saving too little? Don’t look to our federal government as a fiscal role model.
Make no mistake: As a nation, we are profligate. Interest on the nation’s total operating budget debt, now at $22 trillion and counting, is headed for heights undreamed of not all that long ago.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, interest for the 2019 fiscal year is pegged at $389 billion — and that’s with markedly low interest rates.
However, by 2028, the nonpartisan CBO estimates that interest costs will balloon to a whopping $914 billion — and that projection was made prior to the latest planned budget blowout orchestrated by Congress with enthusiastic approval by the White House.
At the CBO’s depressing projected rate, which looks conservative today, that unprecedented $914 billion figure would equal or exceed the entire U.S. military budget by that time.
What’s more, over the next decade, total interest payments on our accumulated budget shortfalls are projected to be a stunning $7 trillion. At some point, the piper must, and will, be paid. Where’s my VISA card?
Old room rates
Still in a financial sort of mood, depressing though it may be at this point, a friendly reader has provided some perspective on local medical costs dating back to the days of the Truman administration.
It’s a small sample size, but a telling point is made with the listed daily patient room rates, circa 1950, charged at what was then Mills Memorial Hospital in downtown San Mateo: adult ward, $10; two-bed ward, $11; private room, $13 and up; children’s ward, $7.
Burton Park reunion
Also in the local nostalgia department, an annual reunion of folks who have frequented Burton Park in San Carlos will be held Saturday at that venue. For information, call Jim Green at 408460-7402.
John Horgan’s column appears weekly in the Mercury News. Contact him by email at johnhorganmedia@ gmail.com or by regular mail at P.O. Box 117083, Burlingame, CA 94011.