Frankly Speaking

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 M...

Photo from Fraser Surrey Docks website It seems unlikely that a coal export facility will ever be built at Fraser Surrey Docks, given the recent global agreement on how to reduce carbon emissions and China`s stated objective of reducing the amount of coal it burns to provide electricity. Canada is among the 195 countries signing on to a worldwide plan to reduce carbon emissions, and attempt to keep global temperatures from rising. The accord, reached in Paris after two weeks of intensive talks, calls for significant reductions in emissions from coal, natural gas and oil. It also calls for preservation and replanting of forests, transparency and regular five-year reviews of how countries are progressing, and an unspecified but significant subsidy from richer countries to poorer ones. The new federal Liberal government wants to move forward and have an implementation plan in place, together with the provinces, in 90 days. Thus this accord will have a very significant eff...

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 ...