2 BART workers killed by train in Walnut Creek Fatal accident: 2 workers on tracks killed by train on maintenance run

Two workers were struck and killed by a BART train Saturday afternoon near the Walnut Creek station, despite a strike that has idled passenger service since Friday.

The two workers, a transit district employee and a contractor whose names weren't immediately released, died at the scene after they were hit by an eastbound four-car train at about 1:40 p.m. on the elevated tracks near Jones Road and Pimlico Drive, north of the Walnut Creek BART station.

The victims were "performing track inspections in response to a report of a dip in the track at the time of the accident," BART officials said in a statement. The train was on a routine maintenance run with a veteran operator at the controls, although at the time of the incident, the train was being run "in automatic mode under computer control."

The two had "extensive experience" working around moving trains, the agency said. Typically, one employee inspects the track while the other acts as a lookout, watching for oncoming trains.

The National Transportation Safety Board announced Saturday night that it was sending a pair of rail experts to the East Bay to look into the accident and would be taking over the investigation.

While BART employees were on strike Saturday, some trains still are being moved between stations.

Police investigate the scene in Walnut Creek where a BART train struck and killed two workers. Police investigate the scene in Walnut Creek where a BART train struck and killed two workers. Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close 2 BART workers killed by train in Walnut Creek 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Paul Oversier, BART's assistant general manager, said the train had hauled two cars that had been defaced with graffiti from Concord to the maintenance yard in Richmond and was on the way back to Concord when the accident occurred. Several BART workers were on the train at the time of the incident, Oversier said, and they were being interviewed by BART police.

Matt Moore, who lives across from where the victims were hit, said he saw the body of one worker near the tracks. Neighbors told Moore they heard a loud "boom" followed by a long, grinding screech that they assumed was the train braking. Moore said he walked down Jones Road and saw the second body, caught partially in the tracks. He said at least two BART workers who had been on the train were standing on or near the tracks talking loudly on their cell phones, clearly upset.

One of the workers was a member of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3993, the smallest of the three unions involved in the strike, Patricia Schuchardt, the union's president, said in a statement.

"We are saddened to learn that two BART employees were killed today after being hit by a BART train," she said. "Our hearts go out to the family of both workers as well as to the person operating the train. This is a tragedy."

Antonette Bryant, president of the transit union, which represents train operators, said the union is working to deal with the deaths. "At this time I have no comment other than to offer my deepest condolences to the family," she said. Out of respect for the workers, the transit workers union planned to suspend all picketing on Sunday.

The deaths are the sixth and seventh fatalities in BART history. The tragedy evoked comparisons to an incident in October 2008, when BART inspector James Strickland, 44, of Concord died after being struck from behind by a train between the Concord and Pleasant Hill stations. The train was on the opposite track from the one it usually used. Strickland was apparently unaware that BART had been single-tracking its trains in the area because of routine maintenance.

Safety during train operations has been a point of contention between BART and its unions, especially when it was suggested that the transit agency was training management workers so that they could be certified to run passenger trains if the strike lingered on.

While BART said a number of managers, most of them former train operators, already were licensed to run the trains for needed maintenance and repair work, the unions said those operators did not have the current experience needed for safe passenger runs.

But Oversier refused to discuss what, if any, effect Saturday's fatal accident could have on the strike.

"The labor issue, the negotiations, is not in the forefront of our minds," he said. "We lost two members of the BART family. That's what is on our minds this evening."