31 July 2007
Man Killed Lying on Train Tracks
London Ontario - The city and Canadian Pacific don't have
any plans to improve pedestrian safety at a downtown railway crossing near where a 23-year-old man was struck and killed
by a train on the weekend.
"We have no reason to think that this level crossing is any different than any other crossing, Dave Leckie, the city's director of
roads and transportation, said yesterday.
"Unless we hear differently from the police report, we have no plans for pedestrian improvement," said Leckie.
Police identified the man killed as William Hubert Mater from Ridgeway, near Fort Erie.
Mater was a recent graduate in kinesiology from the University of Western Ontario, said Ann Hutchinson, a spokesperson for UWO.
Mater was lying on the tracks about 2:30 a.m Sunday when he was struck and killed by the train, said CP spokesperson Breanne Feigel.
He wasn't at a pedestrian crossing, but on the tracks in between St. George and the Talbot underpass, said Feigel.
"They (train crew) put on their emergency brakes and used their whistle... but it's not easy to stop a train from moving,"
she said.
She says accidents such as Sunday's highlight the need for greater awareness about the dangers of trains.
Leckie said there haven't been problems with pedestrians at the St. George and Piccadilly Street crossing, but there have been with
vehicles.
In the last three years, there've been four collisions there.
Those tracks are the only train crossing in the city without gates, so drivers often try to run the crossing to avoid stopping for
trains.
In March the city, with Transport Canada, and CP, decided to install gates at the track next year.
Brad Scrinko, co-chair of the Richmond Row Business Association, called the accident "tragic."
"We would be happier if the train tracks were routed around the city," said Scrinko.
At the train crossing on Richmond Street east of St. George, a bar hotspot, the city plans to install pedestrian gates - that may look
like mini-road gates - because of the large number of people that hang around that area.
The city is in discussion with CP to finalize the design, said Leckie.
Police suspect alcohol may have been a factor in Mater's death.
"When people drink, there is already a responsibility that the bar has to take. But what people do outside of the bars they have
to take responsibility for," Scrinko said.
Often, pedestrians put themselves at risk when they jump between the cars of stopped trains, he said.
On his page on Facebook, a social-networking site on the Internet, Mater was listed as working at The Beer Store in
London.
He planned to go back to school in September to take a few courses, he wrote on a friend's Facebook page.
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