Calgary police say a woman in her 60s who was hit and killed by a CTrain at the Whitehorn LRT Station on Tuesday was on her cellphone at the time.
Emergency crews were called to the station, located on 36 Street N.E., at around 8:15 a.m.
The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.
Calgary police told Global News the victim was crossing the tracks when she was hit by a northbound train.
“All the lights and bells were working and she should have stopped for the train. She did not, and she continued to pass and got hit by the train,” Acting Sgt. Mudassir Rana said.
“From information we received… we are suspecting that she was using her cellphone and she was also wearing her headphones.”
It’s the second time in three months that a distracted pedestrian has been hit and killed by a CTrain in the same location. In February, a 30-year-old man was struck and killed while crossing the tracks in the evening.
Nate Pike with Calgary EMS offered the following safety tips for pedestrians:
“The biggest things that we’d like people to do when they’re crossing the tracks is first of all, the make sure they’re checking both directions to ensure that there’s not train traffic.”
“The other thing that we’d like to encourage people to do is, if they are wearing any headphones — any time you’re crossing traffic, whether it’s train traffic or automobile traffic — we want to make sure people hear everything that’s going on around, so popping the headphones off before you attempt to cross any intersection is always a good idea,” Pike added.
WATCH: Calgary EMS is reminding pedestrians to pay attention around CTrains after a woman was killed at Whitehorn Station Tuesday morning.
Rana said the CTrain driver is “doing okay.”
“She was obviously shaken up because of the incident, but she’s doing better now.”
The incident caused a delay of CTrains on the Blue Line. Shuttle buses were brought in to get travelers to their destinations.
By 11:30 a.m., CTrains were again running on schedule.
With files from Tony Tighe
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