Two people were struck by a train at Colborne St. and York St. in London, Ontario on Wednesday, July 3, 2013. Both were taken to hospital with life threatening injuries. (DEREK RUTTAN, The London Free Press)
A young man died and a young woman riding on the back of his bicycle was in critical condition after they were struck by a train Wednesday night.
Several witnesses said a train travelling west had just finished crossing at York and Colborne streets when the two began to cross the tracks on a bicycle and were struck by a CN train travelling east.
“The eastbound train showed up, you heard the horn and then there were bodies and bikes tumbling,” said Jannon Birch, who was in a car on Colborne St. with Carissa Bishop and another friend waiting for the train to pass.
Bishop said she saw the woman riding on a rack on the back of the bicycle. The bike, she said, appeared to be travelling alongside the train when she saw its back tire flip over.
“We ran up to them and saw them lying on the ground and that’s when we called 911,” she said.
A woman who lives in a building nearby said she heard the train horn blaring and went to her balcony to see what was happening.
“The conductors were blowing their horn fiercely because they couldn’t stop,” she said.
A bike lay twisted on the tracks, the crossing gates still blaring.
Jon Coleby, who was in the car with Bishop and Birch, said the man on the bike appeared to ride out from the south side of the tracks at Colborne after the westbound train crossed and head north when he and the woman were struck.
“They just flew and tumbled 10 to 15 feet,” he said. “I don’t know if they were holding on to the train or what.”
Coleby, his friends and another woman in a waiting car ran to the two injured and found a man kneeling over the man who had been riding the bicycle.
“He was unconscious,” Coleby said. “The other girl was coherent and she looked dazed. He was limp. He was just out.”
Firefighters, police and paramedics worked furiously on the man, performing CPR for several minutes at the tracks before taking him away.
London police confirmed he died. The woman was in hospital with critical injuries, Staff Sgt. Bill Berg said.
Berg said police were called to the scene at about 8:30 p.m.
Because someone has died, the case is now in the hands of major crime detectives, who will sort through witnesses statements and try to determine exactly what happened.
By Kelly Pedro, The London Free Press
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