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Thursday, July 14, 2011

Well... this. is. just. SAD

UPDATE 7-14-2011
10:29 PM

The VIA Rail employee killed in this incident has been identified as Rick McColl, 53, of Hampton, Ont., according to the Toronto Star.
Full story

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"GO E-News Alert"

07/14/2011 02:41 PM

Lakeshore East Passengers: GO Train service on your line is currently suspended between Pickering and Guildwood due to a pedestrian fatality involving a VIA train. The police investigation resulting from this incident is likely to continue into our peak evening travel period and if it does will result in a significant impact to your travel with us this evening.

Currently GO service on the Lakeshore East line has been adjusted as follows:

GO Train service will operate between Union and Guildwood and again between Pickering and Oshawa.

We will operate a shuttle bus service between Pickering and Guildwood GO Stations. Rouge Hill GO Passengers may use their GO tickets to travel on the TTC.

We encourage passengers to allow extra time for travel this evening and if possible seek alternative travel.

We thank you for patience and will provide you updates on your service as soon as the situation changes.

Please do not reply to this email. This is an outgoing message only.
I don't know how you're getting home but I'll just stay here at work until the coast is clear.

Why can't people just stay off the tracks, you ask? Oh wait, he can't because the victim was a CN employee. An engineer! How does this happen? Whose head is gonna roll because communication broke down and someone died? How in the hell does this happen, period?

My condolences to the man's family. A tragedy that need not happen.

24 comments:

Donna said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

CP24 is reporting the fatality was a CN employee.

C.J. Smith said...

This wasn't someone deciding today was the day ... you know, to end his or her life. This was someone killed while doing his job. Yes, it will make tonight hell to get home, but as customers of GO Transit, where we ride these rails where companies who operate them are supposed to keep safety paramount, we have to ask, why did this happen?

lswgirl13 said...

So this wasn't a jumper? This is sad but there is an element of danger with certain jobs. It still sucks to be a LSE rider (which I'm not) tonight. I for one feel safer on the GO than I do out on the highway.

TomW said...

This location is about 100m from where I have (repeatedly) seen schoolchildren short-cutting across the tracks... and which I reported to GO every single time, but with no result. I was sick with worry when I found out the location, because I thought that they had pushed their luck one time too many.

Seriously, if GO cannot be bothered to put up a fence to protect children, it doesn't give a good impression.

That said, this incident was nothing to with GO... but we see far too many of these "pedestrian incidents" - and many of them are not suicides or employeees, but trespassers who could be kept out by a decent fence.

Jen said...

I, too thought that it was a jumper and felt bad for the poor people on the VIA train. This is definitely worse and I feel for this person's family.

I will be riding it out at work too! cannot deal with the number of people that will be trying to use the shuttles or the TTC and buses.

Al said...

Seriously Tom,

Kids climb fences y'know.

Even the ones with those spiky things on top.

Gary said...

It is quite possible that the onus is on the victim. Maybe he didn't radio to anyone he was out on the tracks?

lswgirl13 said...

And if kids want a shortcut they are gonna find one no matter what CN does.
Honestly, I have no sympathy for jumpers though.

lswgirl13 said...

Gary has a good point. I guess that's why everything gets shut down for a thorough investigation.

Anonymous said...

I heard a lady on the train tell someone on the phone she was delayed because some moron didn't look before walking on the tracks! I have been inconvenienced too and had to call a neighbour to pick up my kids from summer camp, BUT I would never take this calous additude to the loss of anyone's life. My inconvience is trivial when compared to the sorrow this person's family must feel. What if some child is now without a parent? Think twice before you speak people...

Anonymous said...

I heard a lady on the train tell someone on the phone she was delayed because some moron didn't look before walking on the tracks! I have been inconvenienced too and had to call a neighbour to pick up my kids from summer camp, BUT I would never take this calous additude to the loss of anyone's life. My inconvience is trivial when compared to the sorrow this person's family must feel. What if some child is now without a parent? Think twice before you speak people...

Anonymous said...

GO seems to group any incident like that into "pedestrian fatality", whether it be an intentional trespasser or an accident. Hence everyone's initial reaction that it was a jumper.

It's not a matter of putting up fences (and holes appear in them all the time), it's a matter of educating people not to be on railway tracks in the first place. In a lot of places there's no fences preventing people from walking onto a highway, but people don't do it because they know the dangers. You see kids and grown-ups everywhere walking along tracks, playing around tracks (and playing chicken with the train), or even getting their wedding pictures done sitting on the tracks.

It is, however, unfortunate this tragedy happened. Railway employees are trained to exercise safety and caution when doing their jobs, but it only takes a moment for an accident to happen.

Bicky said...

I had to be home for a service call sometime between 5 and 9pm. I was going to get the 3:13pm train home but ended up booting it out of work at 2pm.

We were delayed between Danforth and Scarborough. Then we were offloaded at Guildwood but they had about 5 or 6 shuttle buses there. Got the bus to Pickering and then waited about 1/2 an hour for the train.

The only glitch was they told us to get the train on platform 1, then changed it to platform 2.

All in all it went pretty well. At least they had shuttle buses at Guildwood. I've been offloaded at Guildwood twice before for "pedestrian incidents" at Rouge Hill and we've been SOL getting home (no shuttles or help from GO). This time, lots of staff to help direct people, and shuttles to get us going.

So now I'm home and I'm still waiting for the service guy to show up!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

I quote from the Star:
Inspector Dave Saliba from Durham police said two men were doing maintenance work on the tracks during a 15- to 20-minute window when no trains were supposed to pass by.

However, what appears to have been a miscommunication resulted in the Via train coming through, Saliba said.

One worker ran north while the other went south when they saw and heard the train approaching, Saliba said. McColl, going south, was struck by the westbound train, the inspector said, adding that the other worker was not injured.

Durham police do not expect to lay charges, Saliba said.

“It’s just an unfortunate incident that occurred,” he said.


A miscommunication? A miscommunication?! Jesus H Christ. A man is dead! A miscommunication is telling someone lunch is at 1 when it's supposed to be at 2.

This man, who I know, was just years from retirement. These kinds of miscommunications aren't supposed to happen. In this era of technology, what's being used?! Smoke signals?

TomW said...

Re: all those peopel who think fences won't keep poeple out:
If fences don't keep people out, why do so many people use them around places they want to keep people out of?

It is perfectly possible to have a fence that doesn't get holes and doesn't allow children (or adults) to climb over. (A standard chain-link is not the answer - the gaps are perfect toe-hold as you climb up).

Education alone won't work. A proper fence will.

Al said...

I have an 8 foot cedar fence in my back yard, no foot holds and I can still scale it. Are you referring to the fences around prisons, or in zoos? Do you have any idea how expensive those fences are?

I agree there are fences that can keep people out but the expense would require them to raise our ticket prices, do you have any idea how many KM's of track here are in ontario, or even just durham if you like.

I dont but I figure it's a hell of alot.

IMO, it's cheaper to clean up after a colision than it is to build fencing.

Anonymous said...

And people can easily walk onto the right of way from grade crossings, I see it all the time. No practical way to fence them off.

It's just like people running around gates at crossings (both people and cars): sure, you could put in bridges at every crossing, but that would be both expensive and in many cases impractical.

Teach people not to run crossings or play on train tracks, and they won't. Let natural selection weed out the idiots who don't listen.

Anonymous said...

LSWgirl13 I was very dissappointed in your comment. People who take their own life are suffering from a very serious illness. Often those suffering from mental illness wish they had cancer. The amount of resources and support cancer victims recieve compared to those with mental health diagnosis is staggering! Both can be fatal, both can be for life, both have a massive impact on the families who must live with them. Shame on you!

Imagine how horrible thier existence must be that in their weakest moment the only option they can contemplate is to take their life. No one wants to be sick. No one wants to feel that bad. As a society we are only beginning to spend time and money trying to help these people.

TomW said...

"Teach people not to run crossings or play on train tracks, and they won't. Let natural selection weed out the idiots who don't listen."

Screw you. What about the train driver who has the remains of a human being splattered across the wind shield? What about the rail employee who has to go searching along the tracks for a severed head? What about the passengers who look out the window at the wrong moment and see half a body along side the tracks?
Don't say those things can't happen - I know people who had to deal with *exactly* those things. Being killed by a train is a messy, gruesome and horrible business - and it's not the dead person who has to deal with the consequences.

Anonymous said...

Anon 9am: I volunteered at a Distress Centre for the longest year of my life. At the end, I started to doubt my own sanity. But the one thing that I learnt was that there are a LOT of people with a mental illness who do not/will not seek help or take medication. Therefore, they assume that the only "out" they have is to kill themselves. Trains are the best way to do that as most people do not survive.

I have no sympathy for those people. They made the choice to neglect their medication and to seek the help that they need. There are many places that they can turn to in that time, yet they choose the notarity of jumping during rush-hour.

I have sympathy for the people on the train, for the conductors and the crews that must clean up after these people.

Anonymous said...

You're missing the point Tom. If people were taught to just stay off the tracks, not to run crossings, and not to trespass, there would be far less of that stuff for employees to deal with. The average joe isn't aware of the inherent dangers of being around train tracks and heavy rail equipment.

Fences won't stop determined people like taggers and junkies stealing railway signal wire. Fences won't stop kids that walk the tracks from one crossing to the next as a shortcut after school (in that case, education will). Fences (and crossing gates) also won't stop idiots running crossings, or GO commuters from crossing before the gates go up and almost getting killed by a freight on the other track. Teaching people not to do stupid things like that will, or will at least deter most.

While it's unfortunate employees have to deal with the consequences of others poor choices, short of completely isolating trains and humans, incidents between the two will keep happening.

lswgirl13 said...

Anom @9:00 a.m. - Shame on me??? I fully recognize that there are people with genuine mental health issues but I'd also argue that not everyone who takes their own life is mentally ill. Suicide is an incredibly selfish act, yes, it's just that simple. I missed the Sheraton Centre jumper (2 weeks ago) by just a few minutes but saw the uncovered body about 15 feet away. That is a sight I never want to see again. So I'm with Anom @12:52, no sympathy. People that jump onto train tracks, jump from buildings, bridges, etc. want that last bit of drama in their life.