(The following story by Kevin McGran appeared on the Toronto Star website on September 7.)
TORONTO — The Transportation Safety Board lashed out at Transport Canada, painting it as so ineffective and so slow moving in its response to pedestrian safety issues at railway crossings that the department’s inaction contributed to the death of a 12-year-old girl.
Sabrina Latimer was killed and her friend seriously injured when they both walked into a train at a crossing near their Brockville school in 2005.
They had waited for one train to pass, but hadn’t realized a second train was coming.
The board’s final report into Latimer’s death echoes many of the same conclusions of a Toronto Star investigative series into rail safety: that Transport Canada’s regulation of the rail industry is inadequate and its response to safety at crossings is too slow, bogged down by endless research.
“At a certain point, the TSB believes the time for studying issues is past and it’s time to make some positive steps,” board chair Wendy Tadros said in an interview.
The report pointed out the same kind of accident involving an unseen second train claimed two lives in Brockville in 1995, but warnings and recommendations made by the safety body in 1996 had all but been ignored in the decade following.
“Although the need for enhanced protection for pedestrians at high-risk railway crossings, such as the crossings in Brockville, was brought to the attention of Transport Canada, the rail industry, and the municipality by board … 1996, no substantive improvements were implemented at these crossings,” the board concludes.
In the interim, 15 more “second-train” fatal accidents occurred across the country between the two Brockville incidents. The safety board had suggested many safety enhancements — not just for Brockville but for all 256 dangerous crossings across the country: a special whistle for second trains, the installation of a pedestrian gate at crossings, and the use of crossing guards at crossings. Those dangerous crossings include many in the GTA.
“I don’t believe anything has been done with this list,” said Tadros. “The list was put together and action on this stalled.
“We found the risk here. They need to go and have a look and see if that risk is other communities.”
The boards findings echo reports in the Star in a special investigation this year into rail safety that Transport Canada and the rail industry’s primary response to crossing safety — a public awareness campaign called Direction 2006 — was largely ineffective. It had pledged to reduce fatalities by half through awareness through signs and school education, but the number of pedestrian fatalities continues to rise.
Throughout the first six months of this year, 52 people have been killed by trains, well above the five-year average of 40 for the January-June time frame. That includes 17 at crossings, up from the average of 16.
The rail industry and Transport Canada have spent 10 years researching the issue, the board concludes, and like the Star, admonishes the industry for preferring cheap alternatives to such things as pedestrian gates and employing crossing guards at rail crossings.
“(Transport Canada’s) ongoing research is almost exclusively focused on the development and deployment of a cost-effective second-train warning system, to the exclusion of other solutions,” the board writes.
“The department’s “research into the location of crossings with potential for second-train events and the level of awareness of affected communities has not been shared outside the circle of direct research participants. Response to date has not resulted in a measurable reduction in the number of pedestrian injuries or fatalities at grade crossings.”
Some of the board’s recommendations are in place now in Brockville, following a coroner’s inquest into Latimer’s death.
A spokeswoman for federal Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon said the minister was too busy to speak to the Star yesterday. His office issued a statement in which Cannon said he “agrees with the intent of the recommendation.”
CN Rail spokesman Mark Hallman said the railway takes direction from Transport Canada, but warned many of the safety enhancements identified by the board are not foolproof.
“We don’t have a regulatory framework (for a second-train warning system) from Transport Canada,” said Hallman. “The second-train warning systems or the addition of pedestrian gates are not 100 per cent sure-things to prevent future accidents.”