Death of Calgary teenager on train tracks prompts calls for probe and increased safety measures

The death of a teenager hit by a train in northwest Calgary has sparked calls for an investigation into how such situations occur.

The youth was struck by a CPKC train near the Bow River in Bowness on Tuesday afternoon. He died on the way to hospital.

The Calgary Police Service and CPKC are investigating the incident, but the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) is not looking into it further.

In a statement, Liam MacDonald, a TSB spokesperson, said the incident did not take place on or near a railway grade crossing, which the agency defines as a location where a road, sidewalk, path or trail crosses railway tracks. Because of that, the incident has been reported as trespassing.

MacDonald said the board's objective is to "advance transportation safety by conducting independent investigations into selected transportation occurrences in order to make findings as to their causes and contributing factors." 

"The TSB is therefore not obligated to investigate all reported occurrences," the statement reads.

There were two others with the teen when the incident happened, but neither were injured.

'It didn't have to happen'

On her walks around the area, Bowness resident Heather Shaw frequently sees people walking along the tracks or jumping off the nearby train bridge into the river. 

She's a mother who lives in the neighbourhood and says people climb through the broken fences near the track.

Despite calls and complaints to CPKC's main office about the fences, she says nothing changes.

"A young man just died and it didn't have to happen," Shaw said.

"The trains go through that area and they lay on their horn … you'll hear it from both directions and they get more loud in the summertime."

In a statement, CPKC called Tuesday's incident a "tragic death" but noted there is fencing along the rail right-of-way and the bridges in the area.