Burnaby RCMP issued more than two dozen tickets at a local railway crossing during Rail Safety Week last week – but the driver who pulled the most dangerous manoeuvre got away.
Mounties were set up by the railway crossing at Government and Cariboo roads Wednesday and Thursday.
They ticketed 12 drivers for disobeying a traffic-control device, three for being impaired, two for not producing valid driver’s licences and six for having vehicle defects.
Last week during #RailwaySafetyWeek one of our traffic members captured on camera precisely what NOT to do when approaching a railway crossing … When the signal lights are flashing, and you see the gate come down … please don’t do this ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/ubfTncU80Z
— Burnaby RCMP (@BurnabyRCMP) September 30, 2019
They also ticketed six commercial vehicles for a “whole range of reasons,” according to Cpl. Mike Kalanj.
The most dangerous move officers witnessed, however, came at about 10 a.m. Wednesday morning.
A youth with a skateboard drew their notice when he ignored the signal lights and crossed the tracks.
The driver of a white van then went one step further, speeding across the tracks while the lights were flashing and the arms were already lowering
Officers caught the manoeuvre on video.
“It’s quite disturbing, safety-wise,” Kalanj told the NOW.
If the driver had been caught, he would have been handed a $109 ticket, but Kalanj said that’s nothing compared to what could have happened.
“Don’t speed through railway crossings,” he said. “A ticket could be the least of your worries. It’s dangerous and can cause serious injury or death. It’s better to be late than to cause a collision with a train.”
In 2017, (the most current statistics available from the Transportation Safety Board) there were 142 crossing accidents in Canada, including 19 fatal collisions.
