Colborne Ontario - The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) released today its Investigation Report R17H0015 on a collision between a school bus and a train at a railway crossing near Colborne, Ontario.
 
The investigation examined the requirement for school buses to stop at all railway crossings, driver practices, winter tire performance data, and deficiencies in company procedures for railway crossing emergencies.
 
On 13 Feb 2017 a Canadian Pacific freight train, travelling eastward on the Belleville Subdivision, struck a school bus that became immobilized at the Town Line Road public crossing near Colborne, Ontario.
 
The crossing was equipped with flashing lights and a bell.
 
Prior to the collision, the school bus driver and two occupants exited the bus and were standing a safe distance away.
 
The bus and a signal mast on the north side of the tracks were destroyed.
 
The locomotive sustained minor damage.
 
The investigation found that, after stopping as required at the railway crossing, the bus became immobilized when the driver slowed the bus to look both ways a second time while driving over the crossing.
 
Given that the bus had previously come to a stop and that snow had accumulated on the road, the rear tires could not provide the traction required to propel the bus up the incline.
 
The driver believed that, crossing slowly and looking in both directions once on the tracks was safer, despite company training instructions to move quickly and without hesitation across the tracks.
 
Yearly company evaluations did not identify the driver's practice of reducing speed when travelling over crossings.
 
Author unknown.