Officials laud funding for planned bridge in Oxnard that they say will save lives

Mike Harris | Ventura

Show Caption Hide Caption Ceremony heralds Rice Ave. rail crossing bridge A news conference Tuesday in Oxnard celebrated the approval of funding for a bridge at the site of a deadly 2015 train-truck crash.

Officials and the media were scheduled during Tuesday afternoon rush hour to tour the site of a deadly 2015 train-vehicle crash at South Rice Avenue and railroad tracks near East Fifth Street in Oxnard.

But because of safety concerns — the railroad crossing is ranked the third most dangerous intersection in the state — the tour was canceled at the eleventh hour.

Instead, the officials and media, gathered at a safer distance, received a primer on the intersection’s perils by Darren Kettle, executive director of the Ventura County Transportation Commission.

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They had come to the United Water Conservation Water District near the intersection for a news conference hosted by state Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin, D-Thousand Oaks, who also spoke of the dangers of the crossing.

Darren Kettle, executive director of #VC Transportation Comission, explains dangers of the deadly Rice Ave & railroad tracks crossing in #Oxnard at a news conference Tuesday hosted by Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin, D-T.O., to laud funding for a bridge there to eliminate the threat. pic.twitter.com/OyEmswj3rM — Mike Harris (@Mike___Harris) May 23, 2018

“The volume of cars and the speed of cars coming down Rice and then making an abrupt stop,” is indicative of what makes the intersection so dangerous, she told them.

The conference was held to laud last week’s long-awaited funding for a bridge, planned for decades, that will lift Rice Avenue over the tracks near East Fifth Street, which is also State Route 34.

Officials say the project would have prevented the fatal 2015 crash, another deadly one in 2014 and other non-lethal accidents over the years,

The California Transportation Commission authorized $68.6 million in funding for the project from a new source: state Senate Bill 1, last year’s Road Repair and Accountability Act. The legislation is funded by increased gas taxes and new vehicle license fees.

“This is a prime example of the type of situation that SB 1 funds are going to fix,” said Irwin, who has championed the project. “We see at least one accident here per month, and half of those result in bodily injury.

“So now that the money is ready, I think we need to step on the gas and get this project built,” she said. “As the Ventura County Star pointed out (in a May 6 editorial), the funding for this project will literally save lives.”

Construction could begin in late 2020.

Gov. Jerry Brown had been scheduled to appear at the news conference, but because of a flight delay, he was not able to, said his spokesman, Evan Westrup.

But after the news conference, Brown spoke to the media in an impromptu conference call, praising SB 1 for funding the high-priority Oxnard project, technically known as a railroad grade separation.

“It’s great to recognize this one of many projects that SB 1 is going to finance,” Brown said. “It’s going to save lives. It’s going to make commuting and traveling easier and safer.”

He criticized opponents of SB 1 who are trying to repeal the legislation by placing an initiative on the state’s November ballot.

“Some politicians are running around saying, ‘Let’s roll it back ... let’s keep this grade non-separation unsafe and dangerous,’” Brown said. “I don’t think anybody who really looks into the facts would go along with that.”

Brown was scheduled to appear at a private fundraiser for Irwin in Camarillo on Tuesday night, her staff said.

Other officials who spoke at the news conference included Ventura County Supervisor John Zaragoza, Oxnard Mayor Tim Flynn and Kettle.

The most recent deadly train-vehicle crash at the intersection occurred in the early morning hours of Feb. 24, 2015, after a truck driver from Yuma, Arizona, mistakenly turned from Rice Avenue onto the tracks instead of Fifth Street, which parallels the tracks several feet beyond.

Jose Alejandro Sanchez-Ramirez’s truck, which was towing a trailer, got stuck on the rails, and he abandoned it.

About 12 minutes later, at 5:44 a.m., Metrolink commuter train 102, en route to downtown Los Angeles, slammed into the truck. The crash derailed the train, flipping three of its five cars onto their sides.

Thirty-three passengers and crew members were injured, including engineer Glenn Steele, 62, who died a week later.

Sanchez-Ramirez, now 57, is charged with one count of vehicular manslaughter, a misdemeanor.

Another deadly crash at the intersection occurred in 2014 when two men in a speeding car were killed when it slammed into a Metrolink train.