- 注册
- 2002-10-07
- 消息
- 402,166
- 荣誉分数
- 76
- 声望点数
- 0
The final report, at 223 pages, makes for a fairly dry read, except for the sentence that terrifies.
“Given the same circumstances, this accident could have happened to just about any driver.”
The statement is attributed to Rob Johnston, the stone-faced investigator from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, an agency not prone to dramatic flourish.
In other words, the conditions were that potentially explosive on a clear, innocent September morning: a driver dealing with a crowded double-decker bus, watching his four-quadrant monitor for anyone improperly standing on the upper deck, talking to a passenger or two beside him, then negotiating a tricky left-hand turn, initially unable to see the train because of shrubbery and trees, speeding a little maybe because he was behind schedule, perhaps looking forward to hitting 90 km/h in that open stretch through the Greenbelt, then being seized by the danger just a fraction too late, hitting the brakes semi-softly at first (as he was trained), and just running out of roadway to avoid Via Rail train 51.
And 39 seconds after leaving Fallowfield Station, six people are dead, eight are seriously hurt and a community is traumatized.
“(It) could have happened to just about any driver.” Frightening, when you think.
There were about 95 passengers on the No. 76 that day. Think of the intersection: about 20 trains cross there every day on a road that carries more than 1,000 buses. Seriously, given the problems with sight lines, the added distraction from new technology, was it not just a matter of time? And are we not lucky many more weren’t killed?
There is much to parse in this report. But really one meaningful way forward.
We have allowed a planned community of 80,000 to grow up with a speeding train running through its main arteries, maybe even its heart.
“It is time to take action,” said TSB chair Kathy Fox. Long past, in fact.
Fox pointed to an easy way to think about a complicated problem. When it comes to at-grade crossings, the experts look at a figure called the cross-product, which is the number you get when multiplying the number of vehicles and trains at an intersection in one day.
To be on the safe side, that number should be 200,000 or below, otherwise overpasses should be on the radar. The number at Woodroffe Avenue and the train tracks was 700,000 when measured in 2013, the year of the crash. At Fallowfield, it was 406,592.
“Since these risk factors will only increase with further urban and railway development, the existing crossing protection may no longer be adequate,” says a summary of the report. No kidding.
Unfortunately, the TSB is a velvet glove and not a hammer. In effect, it can’t force the city of Ottawa to do anything, which explains the polite language that the municipality “reconsider the need for grade separation” at the three locations near Fallowfield station.
The city, of course, is onto things. There is actually a history of some 20 years of thinking about whether separating trains and vehicles in Barrhaven makes sense. It would cost the earth, of course: the cheapest estimate at Woodroffe was $40 million and excluded other crossings.
But money is money and dead is dead.
(If only to be a contrarian, what of moving the train tracks? Is that a cheaper, workable solution?)
Instead, we keep fiddling: more lights, lower speed limits, clearer sight lines, reinforcing messages to drivers, personnel standing by the gates. All good.
But it doesn’t eliminate the essential threat that Johnston and the TSB are underlining: that left curve is not great; there will always be distractions on a bus, upper or lower deck; there will always be pressure to speed up to meet schedule; buses will never be built to be bullet-proof against a train.
All of which to say, I didn’t leave the briefing confident this could never happen again.
The TSB pointed to 17 findings as to risk in this crash. It looks as though half of them still exist.
And a final impression from the report, which does not attach blame. All the fingers are pretty much pointing at the city and OC Transpo: their Transitway, their driver, their speed limit, their training, their style of bus, their decision to live with car-meets-train crossings.
And, really, their next move.
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
“Given the same circumstances, this accident could have happened to just about any driver.”
The statement is attributed to Rob Johnston, the stone-faced investigator from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, an agency not prone to dramatic flourish.
In other words, the conditions were that potentially explosive on a clear, innocent September morning: a driver dealing with a crowded double-decker bus, watching his four-quadrant monitor for anyone improperly standing on the upper deck, talking to a passenger or two beside him, then negotiating a tricky left-hand turn, initially unable to see the train because of shrubbery and trees, speeding a little maybe because he was behind schedule, perhaps looking forward to hitting 90 km/h in that open stretch through the Greenbelt, then being seized by the danger just a fraction too late, hitting the brakes semi-softly at first (as he was trained), and just running out of roadway to avoid Via Rail train 51.
And 39 seconds after leaving Fallowfield Station, six people are dead, eight are seriously hurt and a community is traumatized.
“(It) could have happened to just about any driver.” Frightening, when you think.
There were about 95 passengers on the No. 76 that day. Think of the intersection: about 20 trains cross there every day on a road that carries more than 1,000 buses. Seriously, given the problems with sight lines, the added distraction from new technology, was it not just a matter of time? And are we not lucky many more weren’t killed?
There is much to parse in this report. But really one meaningful way forward.
We have allowed a planned community of 80,000 to grow up with a speeding train running through its main arteries, maybe even its heart.
“It is time to take action,” said TSB chair Kathy Fox. Long past, in fact.
Fox pointed to an easy way to think about a complicated problem. When it comes to at-grade crossings, the experts look at a figure called the cross-product, which is the number you get when multiplying the number of vehicles and trains at an intersection in one day.
To be on the safe side, that number should be 200,000 or below, otherwise overpasses should be on the radar. The number at Woodroffe Avenue and the train tracks was 700,000 when measured in 2013, the year of the crash. At Fallowfield, it was 406,592.
“Since these risk factors will only increase with further urban and railway development, the existing crossing protection may no longer be adequate,” says a summary of the report. No kidding.
Unfortunately, the TSB is a velvet glove and not a hammer. In effect, it can’t force the city of Ottawa to do anything, which explains the polite language that the municipality “reconsider the need for grade separation” at the three locations near Fallowfield station.
The city, of course, is onto things. There is actually a history of some 20 years of thinking about whether separating trains and vehicles in Barrhaven makes sense. It would cost the earth, of course: the cheapest estimate at Woodroffe was $40 million and excluded other crossings.
But money is money and dead is dead.
(If only to be a contrarian, what of moving the train tracks? Is that a cheaper, workable solution?)
Instead, we keep fiddling: more lights, lower speed limits, clearer sight lines, reinforcing messages to drivers, personnel standing by the gates. All good.
But it doesn’t eliminate the essential threat that Johnston and the TSB are underlining: that left curve is not great; there will always be distractions on a bus, upper or lower deck; there will always be pressure to speed up to meet schedule; buses will never be built to be bullet-proof against a train.
All of which to say, I didn’t leave the briefing confident this could never happen again.
The TSB pointed to 17 findings as to risk in this crash. It looks as though half of them still exist.
And a final impression from the report, which does not attach blame. All the fingers are pretty much pointing at the city and OC Transpo: their Transitway, their driver, their speed limit, their training, their style of bus, their decision to live with car-meets-train crossings.
And, really, their next move.
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
