(The following story by Jenny Yuen appeared on the Toronto Sun website on April 28, 2009.)
TORONTO — Canadian National Railway police have their sights set on the number zero — as in zero tolerance.
CN’s Rail Safety Week kicked off yesterday with officers handing out information pamphlets at the Pottery Rd. and Bayview Ave. railway crossing in hopes of reducing the number of accidents each year on the tracks.
“We’re trying to reduce that rate to zero,” CN Const. Petra Pimenta said. “Crossing violations happen when the arms are down and people continue to drive through and trespassing includes walking along the railroads, on bridges.”
The safety campaign has the theme of “zero accidents, zero injuries, zero fatalities.”
But the stats from last year are far from that.
Accidents at railway crossings and from trespassing continue to cause deaths and injuries. Last year, there were 287 incidents in Canada — 129 resulted in serious injuries or deaths.
“For railway crossings, it’s a shortcut to get to school or to the mall,” she said. “For the level crossings, I guess people are in a hurry to get somewhere.”
The Pottery Rd. stop is just one of 14 major railway crossings and commuter train stations in the GTA taking part in the safety blitz. CN officers will be visiting 180 stops across Canada and the U.S. during the campaign, which wraps up Sunday.