Staff
Motorists across the district can expect safety blitzes this week at select railway crossings as part of CN’s annual “Rail Safety Week.”
“We want to get down to zero accidents and zero injuries, zero fatalities within the CN railway,” CN Police Cst. Peter LeDrew said about this year’s “Target Zero” campaign.
“There’s just too many accidents that are occurring right now,” he stressed.
While the annual blitz usually has taken place at the railway crossing at McIrvine Road here, CN police, the OPP, and Treaty #3 Police this year will be working together to hold blitzes at the Highway 11 crossing at Couchiching tomorrow (April 28) from 10-11 a.m., as well as at the Florence Street crossing in Emo on Friday (May 1) from 10-11 a.m.
Police will be handing out flyers to motorists and letting them know about the “Target Zero” campaign.
This includes safety tips to prevent accidents, such as not attempting to run the lights at railroad crossings, watching a vehicle’s speed so there’s enough time to stop when at a railroad crossing, always stopping if a crossing has a stop sign, never trespassing on tracks and railway property, and crossing tracks only at designated areas.
Across Canada last year, 287 accidents occurred at railway grade crossings and from trespassing, resulting in 56 serious injuries and 73 fatalities.
While there were no incidents locally in 2008, LeDrew noted there were three trespassing incidents and five crossing accidents across Northwestern Ontario.
Fewer crossings mean fewer incidents compared to other areas such as Winnipeg, he conceded, but even these numbers are “too many.”
