Ambulance-train crash should never have happened

The horrific crash involving a train and an ambulance at the Crush Crescent railway crossing in Langley on Friday should never have happened. An 87-year-old patient, Helena Van Gool, who was being transported in the ambulance, died after the crash.
It involved an eastbound ambulance which had pulled across the tracks to the Glover Road intersection. The ambulance, with the patient and two attendants, was struck in the rear bumper area by a CN container train. The train was heading northeast on CP tracks, to join up with the CN line at Rawlison (232 Street).
It isn't clear if the ambulance was in its position before the crossing arms went down, but it would have been easy for the driver to activate emergency lights and siren and get across Glover Road.
To see how it all happened, see the video of the train running into the rear of the ambulance at this link from CTV News.
The resulting traffic chaos was a nightmare in Langley. The train was stopped on the tracks for almost five hours to first allow evacuation of the injured by air ambulance, and then for an investigation to take place. This tied up all the crossings in Milner, except 216 Street, and also tied up the Langley Bypass.
Thankfully, the Mufford Crescent overpass opened just one year ago. This eased a great deal of the pressure, although visitors to the area likely found it difficult to find their way back to Highway 10.

Langley Bypass is part of Highway 10, the main route to the Vancouver Airport and the Vancouver Island ferries from Highway 1. It is inconceivable that there are still no plans for an overpass there.
There wouldn't be any overpasses in Langley at all if residents and Jim McGregor, who was then the fire chief in Langley City, hadn't applied pressure for construction of at least one emergency route above the tracks. The first overpass, on 204 Street, was financed largely by Langley City, TransLink and the province, with a very modest contribution from the federal government.
Thanks to a multi-level partnership of governments, Port Metro Vancouver and the railways, the Mufford overpass and the "combo" overpasses were built, with Mufford the last to open one year ago this month.
The "combo" project involves three overpasses. The largest one is over Langley Bypass and the tracks on the 196 Street alignment, with the other two at 54 Avenue and at 192 Street. There are also overpasses at 232 Street north of Highway 1, 152 Street in Surrey and 80 Street in Delta.
This being federal election season, it is important to nbote that the Roberts Bank Rail Corridor program began under the Paul Martin Liberal governmenmt, and was expanded by the Conservatives under Stephen Harper.

These overpasses are critical links in the transportation infrastructure of this fast-growing area. More are needed - most definitely at the Langley Bypass and perhaps at the Crush/216/Glover intersection, where the crash occurred. It is a very busy intersection, and traffic on Glover and Crush/216 is often tied up. Drivers most often wait through multiple light sequences before they can get through.
The intersection is also occasionally tied up in the evenings, when local freight railway Southern Railway of B.C. switches grain cars into a siding there. That involves closures of Crush Crescent while the switching moves take place.

It is surprising that an ambulance driver would choose a route that crosses the tracks when the Mufford overpass isn't that far away.
The findings of investigations into the crash will come out eventually and we will know more about just what happened. Nonetheless, this puts more pressure on all levels of government to consider more overpasses in Langley, as train traffic is expected to keep growing.