A typical North American grade crossing arm.

29 April 2011

Driver Said to Have Ripped Down Rail Crossing Arms in Surrey

Vancouver British Columbia - Have you ever been stuck in traffic because the arms on a railway crossing came down, even though there was no train coming? That happened today in Surrey, and the people who were caught up in the mess did something illegal about it.
 
Callers to our station, like Harvey, who were stuck at the crossing on Highway 10 and 164th, say the arms came down and the lights were flashing for more than half an hour. "The rails are down, the lights are on, but no train. Traffic was backed up all the way past 152nd."
 
Apparently, fed up with waiting, at least one person got out of their car and ripped down the arms. Traffic started flowing again soon after.
 
Mike LoVecchio with Canadian Pacific says you shouldn't do that. "They are there to protect motorist safety and pedestrian safety. If they've been activated, they've been activated for a reason."
 
Coincidentally, next week is Rail Safety Week and the message is always assume a train is coming.
 
Jesse Johnston.