Photo credit: FlyingPenguins/Wikimedia Commons
At a recent event in Toronto, Canadian transport minister Marc Garneau emphasized the importance of Canada’s railway system, reminding the audience that approximately 40,000 kilometres of tracks crisscross our country. “The network,” Garneau added, “is important to our communities and our economy. Our trains take hundreds of billions of dollars or products across the country and into foreign markets.”
Indeed, the national railway system has long played a vital role in Canadian society. However, with the emergence of faster and more convenient means of transportation, the railway’s glory days are behind it, and elements of the system have fallen into disrepair. Railway crossings across Canada have been neglected, leading to a surprising volume of collisions between trains and pedestrians or cars.
Though instances of railway accidents are far less common than car wrecks or bicycle collisions, the injuries resultant from them can be extremely severe, and in many cases may lead to death. In September 2013, for instance, a double-decker OC Transpo bus collided with a Via Rail train in suburban Ottawa, leaving six dead. Although a Transportation Safety Board investigation found the bus’s driver was at fault in the accident, the tragedy brought railroad crossing safety into the national spotlight.
This April, CBC Investigates looked into “wide-spread design flaws” found at the 25 crossings across Canada most prone to railway accidents since 2000. The investigation found that many lacked automated gate arms and protective pedestrian gates; advance warning signs, flashing lights, and bells; and often featured poor driver sightlines, overgrown bush, and confusing road signs.
Although railway accidents in eastern Canada have dropped 40 per cent in the past 16 years (the Western half of the country does not fare as well), more than 463 people have been killed at railway crossings in the time frame examined.
One of those fatalities occurred in London, Ontario in 2012. Kendra Cameron was just eleven years when she ran onto the tracks and was struck and killed by a train moving at about 50 km/h.
“She ran across the roadway and on to this pedestrian sidewalk where there was no barrier,” said Kendra’s mother Robyn Cameron. “It should be blocked off in some ways so the innocent don’t get hurt.”
In addition to the crossing where Kendra lost her life, London is also home to Canada’s “most crash-prone crossing” near the intersection of St. George St. and Piccadilly St. in the city’s downtown core. It is one of four Ontario crossings on the CBC’s list.
In an effort to reduce railway accidents, new changes to the federal Railway Safety Act were instituted in 2014. According to the CBC, the new regulations “were designed to provide consistent safety standards across the country, clarify the roles and responsibilities of railway companies and road authorities, improve safety features at crossings and mandate information sharing.”
While these new standards will make new crossings safer and will apply to crossings currently undergoing major renovations, they won’t apply to existing crossings until early next decade. Still, the government believes the changes will decrease railway accidents by about 1,000 and fatalities by about 250 over the next two decades.
If you or a member of your family has been involved and injured in a railway accident or collision, contact Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers today. We can help you assess your claim through a free, no-obligation consultation.
Greg Neinstein
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