SASKATOON, Sask. – About 150 school children jostled for a spot against the yellow police tape.
In a few minutes a 50-tonne locomotive came pounding down the track and smashed into a car parked on the railway tracks.
It was a train wreck staged for demonstration, but students, reporters and officials held their collective breath as they watched the massive train smash into the car and shove the tiny hatchback down the track as easily as a kid kicking a tin can.
“It made you kind of wonder how it feels like if you were in the car,” said Jon Ganshorn of Saskatoon, one of the schoolchildren watching the scene.
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“I was kind of scared. If you were inside it would be kind of freaky to see a train coming at you,” said Mike McConnell of Saskatoon. “I have a lot more respect.”.
Respect of trains and railway crossings is what Bob Mitchell, program consultant with the Saskatchewan Safety Council, wanted to instill through the mock disaster. “It was a very sobering experience for them,” said Mitchell, of Regina.
He invited students taking school driver education programs to witness the accident in an attempt to reduce collisions with trains.
In 1993 there were 36 collisions between trains and cars in Saskatchewan. Last year there were 41. By the end of July this year there were already 25 collisions and 12 deaths.
Saskatchewan has only four percent of Canada’s population, yet proportionally has the highest fatality rate in the country, said Mitchell.
There are 6,497 railway crossings in the province for 28 percent of all Canadian crossings.
