'Too many close calls': Metrolinx kicks off Rail Safety Week in York Region

Yorkregion.com
Sept. 24, 2020

“It’s something people shouldn’t have to see.”

That’s one of the things Peter Mohyla, a Metrolinx transit safety officer, said about the aftermath of a person being struck by a train.

The week of Sept. 21 to 25 is Rail Safety Week, but even when the week is over, rail safety and enforcing it is a year-round commitment at Metrolinx.

Mohyla, a safety officer for more than 30 years, has been in charge of organizing events for Rail Safety Week for many years but with COVID-19 this year, he said they had to “reinvent the wheel in a sense.”

On Sept. 21, officials at Metrolinx attended a level pedestrian crossing -- an intersection where a railway line crosses a road or path -- at Hillsview Drive in Richmond Hill, where they installed “Look, Listen, Live” decals on the pavement.

Look,

“Especially today, with everyone staring at their phones and staring at the ground not paying attention to surroundings, it’s a quick reminder to look both ways, although there’s gates,” Mohyla said.

The mayor of Richmond Hill, Dave Barrow, was also in attendance.

Prior to going to the level crossing, Mohyla said Metrolinx as well as CN and Via Rail launched Rail Safety Week by getting together with social distancing in effect at a CN yard in Vaughan, and ringing a train bell in memory of employees who lost their lives on the tracks, and people who lost their lives trespassing at a rail crossing.

GO Transit safety officers were joined at 6 a.m. on Sept. 22 by the York Regional Police at the level crossing on Rutherford Road in Vaughan for a safety blitz.

Mohyla said they were there to educate passersby about railway safety.

For example, what do you do if you get caught between the gates in a vehicle?

Mohyla said the driver and passengers in a vehicle caught between the gates should always get out and get as far away as possible from the vehicle.

“When a train strikes a vehicle, it’s the same when a vehicle goes over the pop can,” Mohyla said, adding that, “The vehicle is now a pop can to a train, that’s the best way to describe it.”

Signs have been posted at every level crossing instructing people what to do in case of that scenario.

“A car can be replaced, a human life cannot,” Mohyla said.

This year’s Rail Safety Week also comes at an important time where Metrolinx said they have seen an alarming increase in trespassing incidents on railway tracks across the region and GTA.

“A lot of close calls … it’s a near miss where we almost strike somebody,” Mohyla said of trespassing incidents.

To put it another perspective, Mohyla asks the children he teaches railway safety to: “Would you go play on a highway?”

“They say, ‘No we wouldn’t do that,’ so why would people want to trespass on railways which is a trains highway?”

“Tracks are there for a reason,” Mohyla said.

According to Operation Lifesaver, a national organization that partners with Transport Canada and other railway companies to stop track deaths and accidents, more than 100 serious incidents involving young people and trains have been reported for this year.

Thirty-four of those incidents have resulted in death, including 11 in Ontario that related to trespassing on tracks.

Metrolinx said that 16 per cent of the total number of trespassing incidents involving people on the GO tracks have taken place in York Region.

The ultimate goal with Rail Safety Week, and all the work Metrolinx does to enforce safety on their tracks, is “Vision zero,” Mohyla said.

“Vision zero is where we have no more fatalities, (no) more incidents; people are listening to the rules, playing by the rule book properly and staying safe, and where we don’t have to deal with this type of incident anymore,” he added. “I’d love to see that before I retire.

“Rail safety is everyday; any type of safety is everyday,” Mohyla said.