Highest Risk Railway Crossings in Oxford County

Thursday, 14 April 2016 13:38

Oxford County showed up 11 times on the list of the top 500 highest risk railway crossings in Canada.

Some of the most dangerous railway crossings in Canada are in Oxford County.

CBC recently reported on the top 500 highest risk railway crossings in the Country. Heart FM got in touch with Transport Canada who provided us with the list and Oxford County showed up an astonishing 11 times. Middlesex County next door was not far behind with 12 crossings on the top 500 list. The most dangerous railway crossing in Oxford was on Wilson Street in Woodstock which ranks 48th overall nationally. These statistics come from the latest data which was in 2014. The next highest risk crossing was in Ingersoll at Thames Street which ranked 68th overall. Also on the list of the top 500:

- Mutual Street in Ingersoll

- County Road 22 in Blandford Blenheim Township

- Main Street N in Blandford Blenheim Township

- Beards Lane in Woodstock

- County Road 29 in Blandford Blenheim Township

- Pemberton Street Ingersoll

- County Road 11 Zorra Township

- County Road 4 Zorra Township

- County Road 4 East Zorra Tavistock

In an email to Heart FM Transport Canada says these numbers are a snapshot of crossings from 2014.

"In 2014, as a legislative requirement, Transport Canada’s internal evaluation services evaluated the department’s Grade Crossing Improvement Program (GCIP), a program which provides funds to eligible grade crossing improvement projects. The report was released and made public in 2015."

Transport Canada says several factors could contribute to the "risk level" of various crossings in Canada.

"Just like road intersections in a city, all railway crossings have an inherent risk due to everyday factors such as volume of traffic, train and road speeds, number of tracks and lanes, proximity to areas of pedestrian traffic, and busy urban vs quiet rural environments as examples. It’s important to understand the distinction between “risk” and “danger”. Risk factors do not necessarily mean a crossing is unsafe. It means that when you compare two different crossings against these risk factors you may deem one crossing to be higher risk than the other. These characteristics are not compliance related, that is to say a crossing that is deemed as a higher risk is not unsafe."

Heart FM will have reaction from Oxford County on these numbers tomorrow.