CN announces Safe Community Fund winners

MONTREAL, May 11, 2005 - The CN Safe Community Fund has awarded grants totalling $25,000 to ten safe communities across Canada to implement rail safety initiatives. The Fund is administered by the Safe Communities Foundation on behalf of CN.

The initiatives range from staging mock train-vehicle collisions at local high schools and conducting safety blitzes at highway/railway crossings to safety presentations by CN Police to students at all levels and media messaging through public service announcements, newspaper ads, billboards and web sites.

First-time winners receive $3,400 and include the Annapolis Valley Safe Communities Coalition in Nova Scotia, St. Thomas-Elgin Safe Community Committee in Ontario, the Strathcona County Safe Communities Coalition in Alberta, and the Kamloops Injury Prevention Network in British Columbia.

Previous winners receive $1,900 and include Safe Communities of the Hill Country (Dufferin County), Greater Belleville Safe Community Committee, Chatham-Kent Safe Communities Coalition, Kingston Partners for a Safe Community, Hamilton Safe Communities Council, and the Rainy River Safety Coalition; all located in Ontario.

John Dalzell, CN's vice-president of risk management, said: "CN applauds the recipients for the positive safety messages their initiatives will deliver in their communities.

"Thanks to the work of communities like these and CN's constant focus on safety, injuries and fatalities at highway/railway crossings have dropped to their lowest level in a decade - by 22 per cent and 54 per cent, respectively."

Paul Kells, founder of the Safe Communities Foundation, adds: "Rail injuries are preventable. Through the CN Safe Community Fund, communities have implemented more than 100 rail safety initiatives. Congratulations to all of this year's winners and to CN for implementing programs that reduce the toll of injuries in our communities."

Canadian National Railway Company spans Canada and mid-America, from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to the Gulf of Mexico, serving the ports of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, B.C., Montreal, Halifax, New Orleans, and Mobile, Ala., and the key cities of Toronto, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Duluth, Minn./Superior, Wis., Green Bay, Wis., Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, St. Louis, and Jackson, Miss., with connections to all points in North America.

The Safe Communities Foundation is dedicated to making Canada the safest country in the world, and CN has been a major supporter of it since 2000. The CN Safe Community Fund accounts for $25,000 of the $100,000 the company contributes annually to the Foundation, and was established to encourage communities across Canada to incorporate rail safety initiatives in the business plans they submit to the Foundation.