Panel Backs Signs, Fences Along Tracks : Metrolink: The safety improvements are proposed to prevent fatal accidents along a two-mile segment of the East Valley route.

In hopes of preventing more Metrolink fatalities, a county transportation panel recommended Wednesday installing warning signs, ditches and an eight-foot-high fence along two miles of railroad track in Sylmar, San Fernando and Pacoima.

The unanimous decision by the Financing and Programming Committee of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission follows a cluster of fatal accidents in the eastern San Fernando Valley--most recently a March 5 accident that took the lives of a teen-age couple walking on the tracks in Sylmar.

The project, estimated to cost $863,760, is expected to be approved by the commission Wednesday. The fencing and other improvements could be installed as early as April or May, officials said.

“I think this should be a priority item,” said Supervisor Ed Edelman, who represents the East Valley area where several fatal train accidents occurred.

The March 5 incident that killed Marc Charles Ballin, 16, and Flora Carpio, 15, both of San Fernando, was the sixth fatal accident, resulting in the sixth and seventh deaths, since commuter service began in October. Four of those accidents have occurred on the same seven-mile stretch between Sylmar and Pacoima.

The proposal tentatively calls for installing 60 “No Trespassing” signs, 3,000 yards of chain-link fencing, 1,000 yards of wrought-iron fencing and 16 gates. In addition, improvements would be made to a ditch between Brand Boulevard and Wolfskill Street in San Fernando.

But Mark Dierking, a project manager for the commission, said details of the project have not been finalized. During the next two weeks, he and other staff members will meet with residents in the area around the tracks to seek recommendations on the type and design of the fence, he said.

The fence program is not the first effort to prevent Metrolink accidents.

Weeks before Metrolink service began, state and local transportation officials launched an aggressive rail safety program that has included the distribution of more than 1 million flyers along the route and more than 600 safety presentations at schools, churches and community groups.

“The fencing program is designed to enhance what we already have in place,” Dierking told the committee.

Metrolink officials have said that installing fencing along all Metrolink tracks would be impractical, considering that the system will eventually extend to more than 400 miles of track. But the proposed fencing program in the Valley is considered a pilot project that, if successful, can be duplicated in other highly populated areas where pedestrians routinely cross the tracks, officials said.

Administrators at San Fernando Middle School, the only campus along the 35-mile commuter line between Santa Clarita and Los Angeles, supported the fencing plan, saying they have long requested a stronger barrier to keep students off the tracks. A 12-foot-high chain-link fence now separates the school from the tracks.

In February, Apolinar Arellano, 32, of Sun Valley was struck and killed while sitting on the tracks near San Fernando Road and Sunland Boulevard in Sun Valley.

Two months earlier, Epifanio Ascencio Lopez, 31, of Pacoima died instantly after ignoring a flashing signal gate and stepping in front of a train in Pacoima.

The first fatal Metrolink accident occurred Nov. 25 when a truck driven by Jaime Farias, 37, of Los Angeles was struck at an unmarked crossing in Pacoima.

Farias’ family filed a $5-million wrongful death claim that was rejected last week by the regional board governing Metrolink.

Two other deaths occurred on Metrolink’s Moorpark line.