Man dead in single vehicle accident on Anthony Henday.

Date: 04/06/2012
Time: Unknown
Location: Edmonton, Canada
Vehicle(s) Involved: Chrysler Intrepid

By The Edmonton Journal

"EDMONTON - Speed is believed to have been a factor in a crash that killed a 31-year-old man on Anthony Henday Drive early Friday.
The man’s Chrysler Intrepid was nearly obliterated in the crash, its entire engine coming to rest in the ditch nearby.
No other vehicles were involved, and there were no passengers in the man’s car. The accident was called in to police at about 2:40 a.m. by motorists who came across the crash scene. Police say the actual time of the collision hasn’t yet been determined.
The man had been headed eastbound on the Henday when he hit the pole, about 500 metres west of the turnoff to Manning Drive.
From tire tracks, it appears the man may have been driving in the ditch for a short distance before the impact. He died at the scene.
A large section of the Henday was closed for most of the morning, as police collision analysts worked at the scene.
Police say speed is believed to have been a factor, but there is no indication alcohol was involved."

Source

Two dead in separate crashes on roads outside Calgary.

Date: 05/01/2012
Time: Around 04:00 P.M.
Location: Calgary, Canada
Vehicle(s) Involved: Toyota Corolla, Ford Econoline

 *Pictures are of only one of the crashes mentioned in the article.*

By Clara Ho and Deborah Tetley, Calgary Herald

"CALGARY - A young boy was killed in a two-vehicle crash and a man from Calgary is dead following a fiery wreck after two separate collisions outside city limits Tuesday afternoon.
The collision east of Calgary that killed the boy and sent two young children to hospital with critical injuries was a “tough scene” to witness, emergency responders said.
Belongings, a child’s car seat and vehicle debris were strewn across the Trans-Canada Highway. A girl was ejected from the vehicle.
All three children are between five and eight years old.
Four people in total sustained “massive, traumatic injuries,” according to EMS.
Paramedics arrived at Highway 1 and Paradise Road east of Calgary shortly after 4 p.m. following reports of a crash between a small four-door car carrying two women and three children and a utility van driven by a lone male, said an EMS spokesman, Adam Loria.
RCMP say the van was heading east on Highway 1 and the car northbound on Paradise Road when it entered the intersection and was struck.
The boy was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, Loria said.
A girl, who was ejected from a rear seat, was flown by STARS air ambulance to Alberta Children’s Hospital in critical condition.
Another boy, who was also in critical condition, and the two women who sustained serious and potentially life-threatening injuries, were taken to hospitals in Calgary by ground ambulances.
Loria said he didn’t have details on the ages of the injured women or whether the five occupants were related.
The driver of the van was not hurt but shaken up and assessed by paramedics at the scene.
Eastbound Highway 1 heading was closed, and reduced to one lane westbound for several hours following the collision so RCMP could investigate.
Loria said EMS will determine whether attending crews need debriefing or time off to cope after responding to the scene.
“We do have young ones at home or families of our own,” he said.
Airdrie RCMP and EMS were also busy responding to a fatal crash northwest of Calgary, which closed Highway 567, one kilometre west of Symons Valley Road.
RCMP say just after 3:30 p.m., an eastbound car veered into the westbound lanes along Highway 567, colliding head on with a westbound semi truck.
The driver, a 50-year-old man from Calgary, was pronounced dead at the scene, said Sgt. Patricia Neely.
“The car broke out in flames shortly after the collision, burning the car,” she said.
The driver of the semi was not injured."

Source

Monday morning MetroRail crash kills man, hurts 2 kids.

Date: 04/30/2012
Time: Around 07:40 A.M.
Location: North Austin, Texas
Vehicle(s) Involved: Metrorail Train, Ford Taurus

By Ben Wear  AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
"A man was killed and two children were injured Monday morning when a Capital Metro train struck their car at a private rail crossing in North Austin, officials said.
It was the second time in MetroRail's 25 months of operation that a train had hit a vehicle at an intersection with no protective gates.
The southbound MetroRail train hit a white sedan at a dirt and gravel drive just south of Scofield Ridge Parkway about 7:40 a.m., Capital Metro spokeswoman Erica McKewen said.
The drive leads to at least two homes in a wooded area to the west. The car appeared to have been eastbound, heading toward the Loop 1 tollway's southbound frontage road.
The Capital Metro track in that area is a long straightaway running alongside the frontage road. A train approaching from the north would be visible for more than a quarter-mile in clear conditions, as was the case Monday morning.
(removed), 32, was pronounced dead at the scene, Austin police said. Two boys in the car were taken to Dell Children's Medical Center, said James Shamard, chief of staff for Austin/Travis County Emergency Medical Services.
Authorities did not identify the children Monday, nor did they release information on their conditions. Shamard did not know whether the man was the boys' father.
Herzog Transportation Services, which operates MetroRail under a contract with Capital Metro, declined to release the train engineer's name. General Manager Terry Bruner told the American-Statesman an initial review of video and onboard data from the incident showed no error by the engineer, who applied the emergency brake and blew the train's horn in the seconds before the crash.
The engineer is next scheduled to work Friday and is free to do so, Bruner said, if he is ready mentally.
"He did everything he could possibly do," Bruner said. "It's a horrendous day."
None of the 128 people on the train appeared to be injured in the crash, Shamard said.
The private crossing has stop signs and white railroad crossing signs just east and west of the tracks but no arms, bells or flashing lights. That setup is typical of the 12 private crossings along the 32-mile MetroRail line and of private railroad crossings generally. Only two private roads along the track, both leading to a gravel quarry with frequent truck traffic, have crossing arms, McKewen said. Another such road, leading to a church, has warning lights and bells but no gates, she said.
The MetroRail line has 62 public crossings, McKewen said. All of them have crossing gates except Red River Street downtown, which has a traffic light.
About 39 percent of the nation's 240,000 railroad crossings in 2006 were private roads or driveways, according to a 2008 Federal Railroad Administration report. Of those 94,400 private crossings, only about 10 percent had safety gates, lights or other mechanical warning devices, the report said. Almost a quarter had no stop signs or train warnings.
The report said that in 2006, there were 410 collisions and 30 deaths at private railroad crossings.
Authorities could not say Monday whether the man's car was moving at the time of the crash or was stationary on the tracks. Officials also could not say how fast the train was moving, but the train speed limit in that stretch of track is 40 mph, McKewen said.
The train came to a stop about 250 feet south of the private drive, with the badly damaged car still entangled in the train's front bumper.
Capital Metro has required its MetroRail engineers to sound the train's bells at each crossing, public or private, since an incident in March 2011 when a train clipped the rear end of a pickup at a private crossing in Cedar Park, McKewen said. The agency also cut back brush to improve sight lines after that accident, and before residents complained, trains sounded their horns when passing that crossing. No one was injured in that incident.
MetroRail engineers are not required to blow their horns as they approach crossings; the agency and the City of Austin have designated quiet zones, where horns generally are not sounded, including in the area of the crash.
Spc. Jeffrey Hinojosa of Texas' Army National Guard said he was in his car on the frontage road parallel with the tracks when he heard the horn.
"I saw the debris flying, and I thought, ‘Oh, man, the train hit a car,' " he said.
Hinojosa immediately pulled over, he said, and started running toward the scene, calling 911 as he did. He was the first one there, he said."

Source 1

Source 2