{"id":31260,"date":"2022-05-12T18:20:58","date_gmt":"2022-05-12T22:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=31260"},"modified":"2022-05-19T18:07:38","modified_gmt":"2022-05-19T22:07:38","slug":"legal-questions-remain-over-potential-whistle-cessation-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/legal-questions-remain-over-potential-whistle-cessation-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal questions remain over potential whistle cessation program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The amount of liability the Town might have to take on when it comes to pedestrian safety at Engelhard Drive remains at the heart of the debate on whether Aurora should pursue a train whistle cessation program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Metrolinx\u2019s plans for a traffic underpass at Wellington Street taking that crossing and the one just north at Centre Street out of the equation, and the assumption the Region would take on liability at St. John\u2019s Sideroad as it is a Regional road, the question of whether the Town would be at risk if anyone got injured at a crossing as a result of a whistle not being sounded came into sharp focus at last week\u2019s General Committee meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There, Town Solicitor Patricia De Sario said she believed the Town shouldn\u2019t accept any liability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe if I told you a worst-case scenario on what would happen if there isn\u2019t a whistle and the train does hit somebody,\u201d she said, responding Councillor Michael Thompson who asked what her position was on the issue. \u201cIf there are claims, there could be personal injury claims from any of the people who are in the vehicle. Say a train hits a vehicle\u2026these would be the types of claims if the person is in the vehicle. If there is a passenger, if a person has passed away, then the\u2026.estate could make a claim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere could be personal injury claims from anybody who could be on the train \u2013 whiplash and if they get thrown forward. If the incident includes a train derailment there\u2019s potential property damage claims as a result of the damages to any of the surrounding areas. There could be claims from Metrolinx for economic losses or any other company that happens to use the railway. This is a worst-case scenario, but this is something that could potentially happen without the whistle blowing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point in time, Ms. De Sario noted, insurance premiums would not rise simply by putting the anti-whistle measures, including pedestrian mazes and gates, in place; rather, it would take a \u201ccatastrophic incident\u201d to see premiums and deductibles \u201cincrease substantially.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A cost\/risk vs. benefit evaluation would need to be known at some point, said Councillor Rachel Gilliland, pressing for an estimate, but Ms. De Sario said this wasn\u2019t information that could be issued by the insurance provider at this point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCompanies look at the market, whether it is a hard market or a soft market, but they also look at your loss history,\u201d said Ms. De Sario. \u201cTo date, we have had a very good loss history, so our premiums have been at an acceptable rate, as have our deductibles. If there\u2019s an incident, that impacts our loss history and that will then dictate what the premiums are. Because there are not many municipalities that have whistle cessation or because there hasn\u2019t really been an incident to date, we\u2019re aware of that went through the courts, the insurance companies haven\u2019t really been giving us any details as to what the increase could be because that is a future event they wouldn\u2019t be able to dictate right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the information should be readily available, the Councillor contended, as the City of Markham has put a similar program in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI understand there is a lot of collaboration between the Region, the Municipality and Transport Canada and there is strict, strict, strict, safety precautions put in place to avoid it at all costs between the maze barriers, arms and all sorts of things,\u201d said Councillor Gilliland. \u201cIt is good to know that so far this is working. More and more people are finding work life balance at home, they\u2019re working from home, working out of out their houses. I think times have changed a lot and with these 15 minutes [trains]going by constantly\u2026it is something we really need to look at.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking in favour of moving forward with cessation, Councillor Wendy Gaertner said there are different angles to consider; under Transport Canada regulations, the onus is on the train conductor to clear the tracks if they see an issue, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can talk about this back and forth but at the end of the day we need to take that into consideration \u2013 the conductor holds the liability,\u201d she said. \u201cBarrie has also prohibited horns, I believe just in the morning. With respect to liability, we hold liability now. Anybody can look at our crossings at Centre and Engelhard, they\u2019re not safe. We would be increasing safety tremendously if we put this in place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor John Gallo also looked at liability through a different lens, stating that there are other \u201cdangerous\u201d situations in Town that could result in an accident \u2013 including on municipal roads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe drive cars, each and every intersection in the Town of Aurora, that could happen,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t put up bars to try and stop that, we don\u2019t blow whistles to try and stop that. Is there an additional issue with trains? I bet if we did some research, they are far safer than motor vehicle accidents but we accept liability if, say, a light is out and someone inadvertently goes through there. There are so many of those situations where we have accepted liability where there is danger involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe implement the best possible way to alert those people crossing there that there is a potential danger.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the liability still a potential issue to consider, Mayor Tom Mrakas said he was not in favour of moving forward if it puts residents and taxpayers at financial risk. If it is a safety matter, however, he said he would be in favour of putting the necessary measures in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy no means am I willing to put the municipality in harm\u2019s way and increasing liability in this case when we know it is going to increase our liability,\u201d he said. \u201cThe reason Markham\u2019s insurance is covering it is they are taking liability. Your insurance is not going to cover it if you don\u2019t have liability. It\u2019s that simple.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The amount of liability the Town might have to take on when it comes to pedestrian safety at Engelhard Drive remains at the heart of the debate on whether Aurora should pursue a train whistle cessation program. With Metrolinx\u2019s plans for a traffic underpass at Wellington Street taking that crossing and the one just north […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-88c","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-05 02:27:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31260\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}