Everyone is being encouraged to take the time this week to “change your train of thought” around rail crossings.

No matter how busy anyone is with harvest or anything else, safety around railway crossings must remain top of mind.

Last year alone there were 222 rail-related accidents in Canada.

Disregard for railroad crossing signals and gates and distracted driving were the main causes of those accidents, along with pedestrian trespassing.

Sean Finn, the Executive Vice President of Corporate Services with CN says it’s a tragedy that could be avoided.

“The number one cause of fatalities and injuries on the network are not operating the railway itself, it’s our interactions between people at crossings and people trespassing on the track. There were 72 fatalities last year in Canada of both types, 72 too many obviously. It is an issue .... and it’s an issue of making sure that all of us realize that railway safety is a shared responsibility.”

He notes that people always underestimate the speed of the train and the fact that it takes 1 ½ miles for that train to actually stop.

“To give you an analogy a 12 thousand foot train hitting a car is equivalent to a car hitting a pop can on the ground. So you can imagine the amount of energy coming at you.”

He notes that train schedules and directions change so people especially at uncontrolled crossings can’t get complacent thinking that there’s never a train here at noon because today there could be.