9 March 2009
Man Dies in Attempt to Save Dogs from Train
Toronto Ontario - A morning walk turned tragic for a man
and his dogs walking along train tracks today.
The man, believed to be in his 50s or 60s, was walking along the south side of the CP freight tracks just off Shaftesbury Ave.,
southeast of Yonge St. and St. Clair Ave., when his two off-leash dogs ran into the path of a westbound train around
8 a.m., police said.
An opening in a fence gave access to the
tracks.
The sound of the train's blaring horn filled the neighbourhood as the man ran across the tracks in a fateful attempt to save his dogs.
The train came to a stop about 50 feet past the trio.
When police arrived, the man and one dog was dead.
The other dog was so severely injured that an officer euthanized it at the scene. "It was obviously in signs of distress,"
Toronto Police Insp. Joanna Beaven said. "It's a tragedy," Beaven said. "I mean, the male was just out walking his dogs
and he was going to save his pet and lost his life in doing so."
Residents in the neighbourhood said several people walk along the tracks as a shortcut to nearby neighbourhoods, such as Rosedale and
Moore Park. "You can cross from the residential area right over to the stairs that lead down to the ravine," said Tara
Wells, who used to cross the tracks on her way to work. "Most of the time you walk out there and you can see so far down either
way that you think you're safe," Wells said. "They (trains) are so often. You can hear them all the time or you can hear the
vibrations." "It's absolutely tragic. I'm really upset about it," she said of the morning deaths. "It's just
horrible that a man was out walking his dog and (there was) this one little accident, this little misstep."
"I would like people in the area to note, those who do walk their dogs on the tracks, these are active train tracks," Beaven
said. "They are used consistently and constantly and it's my understanding that a lot of the public do use these so they need to
take extreme caution and stay off them."
Efforts to patch up holes in the fence that runs along the tracks are meaningless to several people who use the tracks as a short cut,
Bojan Vitko said.
"It never, never lasts long," said an area resident of 30 years. "It's so convenient between this neighbourhood and the
other neighbourhoods." Two openings where chunks of chain-linked fence had clearly been pulled back were found a
short walk from where the man and his dogs were killed.
"I'm just cutting through," said one woman, who passed through the gap in the fence, even with police officers investigating
down the tracks. "I do it all the time."
"It's a natural path. This is a completely natural crossing right here," Vitko said. "If there was a safe foot path, it
would be used a lot."
The man's body and those of his dogs were cleared from the scene before noon.
Trains began running again shortly thereafter.
|
