1 October 2010

Cambridge Couple Urges Change to
Train Crossings After Son's Death

Mike Munch and Jackie Santos hold a photo of their son Benjamin.

Cambridge Ontario - The horror hits whenever Jackie Santos is blocked by a train at the end of her street.
 
Her chest tightens as memories return:  police and paramedics helpless as her two-year-old son lay gravely ill in the back of an ambulance, blocked by a two-kilometre-long freight train trundling back and forth across Concession Road.
 
Details of the 3 Jul 2010 nightmare blur in her mind. Police tell her it took more than eight minutes to get the train out of the way and Benjamin on the way to Cambridge Memorial Hospital. He died three weeks later at McMaster children's hospital in Hamilton, when life support was removed.
 
"It takes me two minutes to drive to the hospital, it should take a minute in an ambulance," Santos said, holding her son's photo at the crossing.
 
"I don't want people to have to face this again. We need this changed."
 
Her husband Mike Munch said:  "Enough is enough."
 
A week ago, they started a Facebook page to push Canadian Pacific Railway and governments to build bridges, improve crossings, shorten trains, and move slow-shunting out of Cambridge.
 
"It's too big a city to be cut in half," Santos said.
 
"We're not trying to place blame. We want it changed. It should have been changed years ago."
 
They're surprised, and heartened, 1,200 people joined their Train Changes for Benjamin Facebook page within days.
 
All were sent a message Tuesday urging they email the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Ontario Transportation Minster, demanding a fix for Cambridge's railway delays.
 
"There's no way a person with a heart can ignore these emails. People are parents, they all have kids. It could happen again," Santos said.
 
"Keep the pressure on CP," Munch said.
 
The Ontario coroner's office is reviewing the circumstances of Benjamin's death. It doesn't appear the ambulance delay aggravated his condition, local officials say.
 
In August, railway and local officials met in Cambridge to look for solutions. Current railway emergency phone numbers were distributed and work started on common maps, so railways and rescue crews talk the same language.
 
Local officials want direct radio contact with train crews and maybe web cams watching crossings, so emergency dispatchers know where trains are. Another meeting is planned in October.
 
Work is set to start in February on a $20 million bridge to carry Hespeler Road over the Canadian Pacific tracks crossing north of the Delta intersection. Work should finish by Christmas, 2012.
 
"Once we get the bridge done, and the communication in place, I think finally we will have solved the problem," said Mayor Doug Craig, who spoke with Santos this week.
 
"You can't get rid of the trains, they go to Toyota. We have to be fair about this."
 
Cambridge MP Gary Goodyear has pushed for years to toughen federal railway rules so trains don't block traffic like happens daily in Cambridge.
 
In recent years, Canadian Pacific "appears reasonable and much more co-operative" when it comes to community concerns, Goodyear said.
 
Better communications are essential, as is the Delta train bridge, Goodyear said. So is a Concession Road bridge over the tracks, at the railway's expense, he said.
 
Canadian Pacific Railway has no comment about the need for a Concession Road bridge, because it doesn't run the roads, said spokesperson Mike LoVecchio.
 
The first meeting with local officials about fixing train delays was "very positive," he said in an email.
 
"CP is committed to the relationship we are building with the city and region. We will continue to participate in the meetings going forward."
 
Santos and Munch were in their Concession Road home with two of their three children on 3 Jul 2010, a Saturday morning. They moved in five days before. Both were dozing in the basement as Benjamin and Lucas, 3, woke up. Somehow, the toddlers removed a wooden board blocking a gate on the rear deck and headed for an in-ground pool.
 
About 9:30 a.m. Munch noticed Lucas looking into the shallow end. He grabbed lifeless Benjamin from the water and yelled for Santos to call 911 for help.
 
Police, firefighters, and paramedics were there within minutes, revived Benjamin and had him in an ambulance in only minutes more, they said. As the ambulance pulled away, they followed in their car. Within a minute, they saw traffic backing up on Concession because of the train.
 
Emergency officials say they had out-of-date telephone numbers to contact railway police, but the person who answered the phone quickly got the message to train dispatchers to radio the train crew to get out of the way.
 
The slow train stretched to the southeast and blocked Hepseler Road, and stretched northwest to block crossings in old Preston, so the ambulance had nowhere to go. Police cars were waiting on the other side of the train, ready to halt traffic on Coronation so paramedics had a clear path to Cambridge Memorial.
 
While Santos and Munch were with Ben at hospital in Hamilton, friends raised money and completed a fence between the pool and deck. Relatives organized barbecues where strangers pitched in cash to help. But Canadian Pacific never offered its condolences directly to the family, Santos said.
 
"Ben's drowning was tragic. CP expressed our sympathy publicly at the time," said railway spokesperson LoVecchio.
 
"It is important to note, however, that the delay at the crossing was not a factor in Ben's drowning, which has also been stated publicly."
 
The railway's words offer Munch and Santos no comfort. Their campaign to eliminate train crossing delays helps manage their grief.
 
"I guess I want to make sure the memory of it will give his short little life some meaning," Santos said.
 
Kevin Swayze.