Calgary police continue to investigate a fatal crash involving a pedestrian and a CTrain on Monday evening and believe the victim may have been distracted.
It happened around 8:15 p.m. near the Whitehorn LRT Station.
“At that time a northbound train struck a pedestrian who was crossing the tracks and as a result of that collision the 30 year old male pedestrian sustained fatal injuries,” says Sgt. Colin Foster with the Calgary Police Service’s collision reconstruction unit.
He was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
Through the course of their investigation, officials have determined that the warning signals were active and functioning properly, but the pedestrian appeared to have been distracted by his cellphone and was wearing earphones at the time of the crash.
Foster says they get one or two of these fatality collisions every year and he doesn’t know what else police can do to get the message across.
“When a train is approaching the barriers do come down, the lights are flashing, there’s an audible sound system that is sounding and pedestrian still seem to be oblivious to what’s going on,” says Foster.
“We really encourage anyone who’s crossing the tracks to make sure it’s safe to cross. There’s signage there that says look both ways for trains.”
Alberta Opoku had a close call at the Saddletowne CTrain station about two years ago.
“I was going to work and wearing headphones and I didn’t know the train was coming. I didn’t see the lights and then the train was right there,” he says. “ Everyone was shouting at me and since then I never use headphones.”
Police are reviewing CCTV footage to assist them in the investigation and it’s not known if drugs or alcohol had anything to do with the incident
The driver was assessed but was uninjured.
Anyone with information about the crash is asked to call police at 403-266-1234 or Crime Stoppers anonymously using any of the following methods:
TALK: 1-800-222-8477
TYPE: www.calgarycrimestoppers.org
TEXT: 274637
