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...

Changes to the ambulance service, announced on Feb. 5 by the B.C. Emergency Health Services, should prove beneficial to residents in Surrey and Delta. A total of eight new ambulances are being added, and 34 paramedics are being hired. Three of the eight new ambulances will be based in Surrey, and none of them will be based in Vancouver. The city of Vancouver, with its high concentration of health institutions, has long been well-served by the ambulance service. The BCEHS has recognized that it is the fast-growing regions around the city that need help the most. Thus Langley and Abbotsford will also get two new ambulances each, while the North Shore will get the eighth one. Meanwhile, in the Tri-City area, new paramedics will be hired. This is a significant recognition that, in fast-growing areas (mostly within Fraser Health Authority), thee level of service provided isn’t up to the highest standards. BCEHS is targeting that in 75 per cent of calls for service, an ambulance w...

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 ...