13 June 2012

Pedestrian-Train Collisions Big Concern to Safety Organization

London Ontario - In the wake of London's fourth pedestrian-train collision of the year, rail safety concerns have once again been brought forward.
 
"That's a rate that is just unacceptable," national director of Operation Lifesaver, Dan Di Tota, said of the city's total through five-plus months of 2012.
 
Over the course of 2011, there were 70 rail-related accidents in Ontario. Thirty-eight of them occurred at crossings, while 32 happened elsewhere because of trespassing.
 
London police spokesperson Const. Dennis Rivest says the latest incident, which involved a pedestrian sustaining life-threatening injuries after being struck by a train in the CP rail yard Tuesday night, appears to be an intentional act.
 
On 18 May 2012, a man was struck and killed by a VIA Rail train. Police determined that it too was an intentional case.
 
Two other pedestrian-train casualties, one on 27 Mar 2012 and another on 12 May 2012, however, are both regarded as accidents.
 
"Just one (incident) is concerning enough," Rivest said of the overall scope of seeing three deaths, and four total instances, unfold in London over such a short span.
 
In the first quarter of 2012, 22 accidents were recorded province wide, 13 at crossings, and 9 via trespassing, which is 4 and 3 accidents ahead of last year's pace, respectively.
 
Operation Lifesaver, a rail accident prevention organization funded by the Railway Association of Canada and Transport Canada, is in the business of trying to prevent these accidents.
 
Di Tota says 99 percent of accidents are preventable, and the fact that London has already had two accidental deaths before the halfway point of the year is "significant."
 
"It's a big concern," he added.
 
"If you look at 2011, those were some of the best numbers we've recorded since our tracking began in 1981. And this year it's been quite the opposite."
 
People's general carelessness near railroad tracks, Di Tota says, is a major contributor to the problem.
 
He says people try to hurry across tracks on foot, attempt to beat an oncoming train by car, or are unable to hear a train's horn because they're using headphones.
 
There have been four pedestrian-train collisions in London so far in 2012:
 
·  27 Mar 2012 - man hit and killed near Maitland and York streets, deemed accidental;
 
·  12 May 2012 - man hit and killed near Oxford and Richmond streets, deemed accidental;
 
·  18 May 2012 - man hit and killed near Third Street and Culver Drive, deemed intentional;
 
·  12 Jun 2012 - man hit and sustained life-threatening injuries near Quebec and Adelaide streets, deemed intentional.
 
John Matisz.

Model Railroaders get it, why can't drivers? - Date/Photographer unknown.