Wagner pulled up in her car at the intersection of 1300 East and 500 South, waited for the light to turn green and proceeded into the intersection.

It turned out she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A TRAX train sped through a red light and careered through the intersection - slamming into the passenger side of the car, where her children were sitting. Dylan was unhurt, but Olivia suffered a face full of glass, a broken clavicle and a lacerated liver.

"I looked back and my son was OK, but then I looked at my daughter," said Wagner. "She didn't respond and her eyes rolled up in her head and I thought I had watched her die."

The Utah Transit Authority admitted fault in the incident and said it was the first time an operator caused an accident with injuries.

But there are no clear-cut guidelines for tracking when a train runs a stop signal. UTA spokesman Justin Jones concedes that trains frequently run through intersections after a motorists' light has turned green.

"Certainly if they have the stopping distance and are able to stop before the signals turn, they do," Jones said. "But there are times when our trains are in the intersection."

That's a problem for some downtown residents.

Shane Johnson says he was nearly hit by a TRAX train that ran a red light the day after Thanksgiving at the intersection of 500 East and 400 South while on his way to work.

Johnson's light was green. But what really concerned him was the lack of clear-cut reporting guidelines for reckless operators.

"How does [UTA] know that [Wagner's case] is the only time if [UTA] has no procedure or policy for keeping track of these things?" asked Johnson, a Salt Lake City Weekly reporter. "This might be one chink in their armor."

Jones doesn't dispute Johnson's claims.

While UTA does track minor accidents along its 19-mile rail line, federal guidelines only require reporting of accidents that cause death or more than $7,500 in damage.

Since 1999, six fatalities and two suicides have been reported. Eighty-seven reportable "incidents," ranging from fender-benders to train-derailing collisions have occurred along the TRAX line.

That's a very clean safety record says Paul O'Brien, UTA's rail service general manager. He explained that operators are routinely checked by the agency and questioned if someone files a complaint about their driving.

"We do a lot of things to help ensure that the system stays safe," he said.

But Wagner contends UTA officials have yet to step up to the agency's full responsibility.

Yes, they accepted fault in the accident.

Yes, they paid for her car.

Yes, they offered her a settlement for medical bills.

But Wagner rejected the offer, saying it doesn't begin to cover the emotional and physical damage.

Olivia, at age 13, is left with a line of small scars from the bridge of her nose down to her mouth. One side of her lower lip is bigger than the other and a slight scar has etched a line through one of her eyebrows.

"I could hear UTA saying, 'Come on, she looks great,' " said Wagner. "But, from her perspective, she's a 13-year-old girl. This is the only face she has. I just don't want them to minimize that."

UTA's Jones said the agency has worked to ensure that an accident like Wagner's won't happen again.

"Clearly, this was an operator error and an unfortunate incident that resulted in injuries," Jones said. "This was a very serious reminder to all of our operators to pay very close attention to the signals. This is the only time this has ever happened. We took this very seriously and made sure that our operators understood how serious this could be."

That's not good enough, says Wagner. "It's too late," she says, "for what they might have done."

She notes that on Friday, Olivia will begin the first of three plastic surgeries to reduce scarring on her face.

nwarburton@sltrib.com