Tragic fatal crash at Langley Bypass rail crossing need not have happened

Sunday’s fatal crash involving a car and a train at the Langley Bypass crossing was the second in just over three years on the Canadian Pacific rail corridor to take the lives of elderly Langley residents. In September, 2015, an ambulance was hit by a train at the Crush Crescent crossing, killing the 87-year-old patient inside.
Sunday’s terrible tragedy involving a car and a train needn’t have happened.
The crash, detailed in this Langley Times story https://www.langleytimes.com/news/watch-two-seniors-reportedly-hit-and-killed-by-train-in-langley/, took place on a sunny December morning. The victims, a 90-year-old man and an 88-year-old woman, were in a vehicle that somehow became stranded on the Langley Bypass crossing. The crew of the westbound CN coal train had no ability to stop the train, which would have weighed in excess of 10,000 tons. The train pushed the car the couple were riding in close to a kilometre down the tracks before it stopped.
The couple were identified on Monday as Christian and Irmgard Wantke. They had been married for 70 years. Their son said they were on their way to a doctor’s office when the crash occurred.
The federal, provincial and local governments, along with the Vancouver port authority and the railways, have invested hundreds of millions to built overpasses in Langley, Surrey and Delta along the Roberts Bank rail corridor. Unfortunately, the ambitious program did not include four very busy crossings in the major commercial area of Langley, which has very busy traffic - the Langley Bypass (Highway 10) crossing where the latest tragedy occurred, 200 Street, Fraser Highway and the Crush Crescent/216 Street/Highway 10 intersection in Milner. A September, 2015 crash at that crossing involving a train and an ambulance took the life of the patient being transported, an 87-year-old woman.
The actual reason the driver of the car in the latest crash was unable to move is still under investigation. It may have involved age, as a former policeman friend of mine suggested on Facebook. Older people sometimes are unable to react as quickly as younger people when driving.
One possibility that has yet to be mentioned are the very poor sight lines at the Langley Bypass crossing. That area used to be quite open and it was easy to see trains approaching. Now there are two car dealerships, on both sides of the Bypass east of the crossing, built almost up to the railway right-of-way. The Mufford Crescent overpass to the north also can impede drivers’ views.
In addition, the Glover Road/Langley Bypass intersection just east of the crossing is very busy with heavy traffic going in all directions, and that can be confusing to drivers of all ages.
Langley City should have required greater setbacks from the rail right-of-way when the new car dealership buildings were built within the last decade.
It is past time that citizens of Langley push all levels of government to build overpasses or other alternatives to level crossings on the four busy streets. According to the Langley City assistant fire chief, as many as 30 trains are using the tracks daily. Where else in Metro Vancouver are 30 trains travelling through a very busy business area, with plenty of road traffic? Within about a three kilometre stretch, the rail line crosses all four busy streets. A busy rail line crossing busy streets in this area is unacceptable.
Thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the couple who were killed, as well as to the two crew members in the train, who were traumatized by seeing a car in front of them that did not move. They knew they could not stop. That is a horrible situation that none of us would ever want to be in.