Van crashes into LRT vehicle, again: Police

Waterloo Regional Police Service are investigating after a van collided with an ION train in Kitchener Thursday afternoon.

Police said they were called to the area of King Street West and Green Street just before 1:30 p.m.

The driver of the van was taken to hospital with what police called minor injuries.

Waterloo regional police service said they believe the driver of the van was trying to do a U-turn at the intersection and was hit by the ION train.

Police said damage to the train is believed to be "moderate."

The LRT was also hit by a van on May 31, a collision that caused about $30,000 in damages to one of the trains.

In that crash, two people in the van sustained minor injuries and the LRT driver was uninjured.

Kitchener's LRT system has not yet opened to the public. It is set to open its doors to transit users on June 21.

The LRT is being "burned in" right now, meaning cars are being run on the tracks for a required number of kilometres before they can be used by the public.

Regional officials said the train was driven back to the operations maintenance facility after Thursday's crash so the damage could be assessed.

"It shouldn't impact our start. We do have spare vehicles. We essentially need 10 functioning vehicles for our summer level of service," said Thomas Schmidt, the commissioner of transportation and environmental services for the Region of Waterloo.

He added damage from the May 31 crash was apparently repaired within a couple of days, and a minor "paint scrape" that happened during a collision on the weekend was repaired the following day.