MHPS deals with a range of rail safety concerns

“We deal with rail safety with people that are breaching the fence, say behind Top Hat Bingo they’ll try to go through the fence and cross the series of tracks so we’ll try to prevent that. We’ll also have some individuals that will go onto the railroad property and taking some items from their yard so we get the odd file form that so we work with the CP Rail Police heavily on those files.”

Sadlemyer adds that once or twice a year, city police have to call CP Rail to have the tracks shut down because of people wandering on them, often due to mental health concerns.

Motorists at crossings is another concern police keep an eye out for, pointing out the intersection at 23rd Street and Box Springs Road for example.

“There’s a stop line there for a reason and you have to stop back of that line. A lot of people before they make their right turn they’ll stop on the tracks, which I know the CP Police have handed out violations for because you can’t do that,” he said.

And just recently he issued a ticket for a driver that made a left turn on the red light there to head on to 23rd Street. He said the back of the train was six feet from the intersection when the driver drove through.

He likes to think that level of disregard for is few and far between.

Still, his message is clear.

“When you’re dealing with railway equipment, you’re never going to win. The trains are big, they’re moving fast if it’s on a major line. Stop, wait the extra few seconds and take care of you and your occupants.

Major rail safety issues aren’t common, but incidents do happen.

In June a train crashed into an unoccupied Dodge Durango on the tracks near Brier Park Road, while in May one man was killed and another seriously injured in a vehicle-train collision near Brooks.

In 2013 a Bow Island girl was killed when she was struck by a train while walking across the tracks.

by Chris Brown

MHPS deals with a range of rail safety concerns

Our Community