Huge civil trial centred on treacherous B.C. railway crossing begins
Nearly a year ago today, CBC published an investigation of the most accident-prone railway crossings in Canada. The 11th entry on that list was an unassuming intersection in Langley, British Columbia. Despite being flagged in 1990 as a possible safety hazard by Transport Canada, certain issues in that zone continued to go unaddressed. It has seen five serious train accidents since that 1990 review.
One of those more recent accidents occurred on May 8, 2014 when a woman named Jane Huang sustained life-threatening injuries from a collision with a train at the Langley crossing. It has changed her life irrevocably. She has severe mobility issues and the incident has taken a huge toll on her mental health.
"I feel now I've become the burden to the society," said Huang. "I just feel so depressed."
Today is the beginning of a civil suit that may end up providing some restitution for this tragic—and arguably, very preventable—situation. Huang's $5-million suit will target Canadian Pacific (owner of the rail line) and CN Rail (operating the track the day she was hit). Beyond just giving her some form of repayment, this trial could perhaps play a critical role for the safety standards at both the Langley crossroads and at others across the country. That is certainly Huang's hope in all of this.
"I just hope at least they can upgrade the crossing," she said. "The second wish I have is that the railway company could upgrade the railway system for all the crossings in the whole country because this could happen to other people.
At Langley there are some clear upgrade areas that have already been identified. Currently, the only restraints in place to prevent collisions are a stop sign, white "X", and a sign that says "No Stopping On Tracks." While that may be considered reasonable in theory, the geometry of the Langley crossing makes those measures less effective than they could perhaps be under better circumstances. Installations of things like bells and lights at rail crossing have proven to be almost 100 per cent effective at preventing collisions, yet Langley has none of them.