Woman in her 80s fatally injured after she stops inadvertently on the track, finds TSB
It is likely that confusion may have caused the death of a woman in her 80s who was involved in a train-car collision last year, according to a report from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB).
The incident happened on Jan. 27, 2023, when commuter train EXO 816 on the Mont-Saint-Hilaire line 13 of the Réseau de transport métropolitain at Mile 74.25 of the Canadian National Railway Company (CN) St-Hyacinthe Subdivision in Montréal and Mont-Saint-Hilaire Station, Quebec, at Mile 52.4 of the same subdivision.
The train, travelling east on the north main track, had just left Saint-Bruno Station (Mile 63.8) in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Quebec. At approximately 1758, the train was approaching the public crossing at Seigneurial Boulevard West (Mile 62.18) at a speed of 62 mph.
Source: Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB)
The flashing lights on the automatic warning devices activated when the train was approximately half a mile from the grade crossing. Three seconds later, the vehicle stopped on the grade crossing, its front end impinging on the rails of the north main track, noted TSB.
A few seconds later, the driver of the vehicle tried to reverse, but the crossing gate had lowered behind her and was blocking the way. Several stopped motorists sounded their horns to warn the driver.
The locomotive engineer (LE) saw a vehicle that was stopped on the track, sounded the locomotive whistle and, around one second later, initiated an emergency brake application.
The vehicle’s passenger asked the driver to get out of the vehicle immediately. Five seconds before the collision, the front passenger-side door opened and a man got out of the vehicle. He took cover behind the grade crossing gate before the vehicle was struck by the train.
The train struck the vehicle one second after the brakes had been applied, at a speed of 60 mph. The train came to a stop approximately 595 m further on.
The female driver in her 80s was fatally injured in the incident.
“Before impact, the driver’s attention was also drawn to auditory stimuli from the horns of vehicles stopped behind her and the bells of the grade crossing,” said TSB.
“In this occurrence, the combination of visual and audio stimuli is likely to have confused the driver, considerably slowing her reaction time and affecting her decision-making ability.”
TSB also noted that between Jan. 1 2003 and Jan. 31, 2024, eight collisions with trains at this grade crossing have been reported.
In three of these occurrences, one person was fatally injured. In another occurrence, one person sustained minor injuries.
However, a review of each of these occurrences showed that “there was no common link between them,” said TSB.
