'Fine, arrest, or criminal record': Police react to video of woman jumping stopped train with child

The train was stopped. The lights were flashing. But a woman who jumped over a stopped train with a young child in London, Ont. didn’t care.

“I told her it was dangerous, but she told me to go F-myself,” said Christopher Bogle, who filmed video of the woman committing the offence Saturday at Richmond Street and Mill Street.

The tracks at that intersection belong to Canadian Pacific (CP) Railway.

“Climbing over any railway equipment whether stopped or moving is extremely dangerous,” said Inspector Anthony Kilburn of CP Police.

Viewer-submitted video depicts a woman holding a child climb over a stopped train at a railway crossing in London, Ont. on June 18, 2022. (Source: Christopher Bogle)Danger is not the only risk factor for someone who commits this offence, and there can be severe consequences too.

“Under the Rail Safety Act, you're looking at fines anywhere from $500 plus for trespassing or failing to give way to railway equipment,” said Kilburn. “Those can result in fines, arrest and they can result in a criminal record because it's a federal offence.”

Kilburn added that when children are involved, the case or charges can be handled by local police and even the local Children’s Aid Society.

“It is very dangerous to move across a stationary train, because it can move any time,” said Ian Naish, a rail transportation consultant, and former director of Rail Investigations Branch of the Transportation Safety Board.

“If you get hit by a train, the train weighs around 10,000 plus tons. It takes some time to get moving if stopped, but depending on the track and the gradient, when you release the brakes and run in can happen fairly fast, and you can get squashed,” he said.

What Bogle witnessed Saturday comes less than two weeks after a person was killed in that exact same spot. It also happened right next to the memorial for Trevor Barton who was killed there in 2012.

Operation Life Saver has reported 89 incidents involving rail crossing or trespassing this year in Canada. 22 of those are fatalities, and 20 more resulted in serious injury.

A man is seen climbing on a stopped train at a railway crossing in London, Ont. on June 18, 2022. (Source: Christopher Bogle)Bogle said it’s not the first time he’s seen a similar action at that crossing.

“I’ve noticed late on weekend nights, occasionally I've seen students, or people coming from the bars late at night, trains come along and they're not being patient enough and they will jump over the train while it’s stopped,” he said.

“I’ve even seen people jump over when it was going very slowly,” Bogle added.

Police warn anytime is train time, as they can begin moving suddenly without warning, and people should observe the crossing signals at all time.

“So in this particular case with the train blocking, they should not have been cutting across,” said Kilburn.

“We regret that the inconvenience a stopped train causes but it doesn't excuse the extremely dangerous actions taken. Had the train started moving, these individuals could have been killed or seriously injured,” he added.