An incident on a local railway bridge during the weekend could have ended deadly after a Niagara Falls-bound GO Train managed to stop mere feet away from a family trespassing onto the tracks.
It was on Saturday afternoon that a GO Train operator had to step on the brakes after four individuals, two adults and two young children were seen strolling on a bridge crossing as the train was approaching.
When the train came to a full stop, the family had been about a foot from getting hit by the train on the bridge.
“It is really shocking for us,” said Scott Money, a spokesperson with Metrolinx to Thorold News.
“When you hear about these things with people either walking on live tracks or laying down, it is really unnerving and upsetting for people who work in this industry. It is nothing to joke about.”
By the time security personnel could be dispatched to the scene, the couple and children were gone – but left staff with an unsettling feeling that things could have ended much worse, not only for the family but also for train personnel.
The only other option the family had to escape the train, had it not stopped, would have been to jump off the bridge into a shallow and rocky bed of water underneath, likely to result in serious injury.
Scott Money said similar incidents take a serious toll on employees who are at risk of developing PTSD.
Other incidents of people trying to take spectacular images for social media have also occurred over the summer, prompting the train operator to issue yet another warning of the dangers with train tracks and bridges.
“Recently, two young ladies were found laying on the train tracks to try and make videos for TikTok,” Money recounts.
In response to trespassing incidents, Metrolinx has tried several approaches to control unauthorized foot traffic on the rails.
New safety mats are being installed at some corridors, making it virtually impossible to walk over the tracks.
Scott Money said they would ideally have liked to talk to the family about the incident in the area, but say they don’t have any way of tracking them down.
Instead, he said, they are working hard to get the message out that safety is more important than a few followers on social media.
“Even if you think you know the train schedule and rely on that, you don’t. Any time is train time, and you are definitely not going to know the freight train schedule,” Money concludes.
Watch Metrolinx own footage of a near-miss situation here: