“Our goal is to have zero incidents, and so we are trying to be as proactive as we can. We want to prevent incidents from ever happening rather than responding to them and dealing with them after the fact,” says Sgt. Leaden.
As Sgt. Leaden points out, an essential part of reaching and maintaining that goal is community engagement. While professional truck drivers are the target audience for this particular program, the initiative undoubtedly helps build greater rail safety awareness throughout communities where train tracks and grain facilities are commonplace.
“The community engagement is a number one priority for us because our tracks run through communities across the country,” he explains. “With our outreach, we try to encompass as many different components of the community as we can to provide safety education.”
Though it’s too early for detailed data on the results of the Grain Initiative, which launched in September 2018, there are some indications that it’s contributing to positive changes. In fact, it’s been a full year since a railway incident occurred involving any professional driver across CN’s Prairie Division.
But according to Sgt. Leaden, that good news doesn’t mean CN police officers will be slowing down with this initiative anytime soon.
“We are really excited about that, but we’re not going to take our foot off the gas. If anything, we’re going to be pushing this program more because we truly believe that we are making strides,” he explains.
“Because when it comes to numbers, just one incident is too many. At the end of the day, we all want to go home safely.”
Canadian Agricultural Safety Week (CASW) is a public campaign held annually during the third week of March that focuses on the importance of safe agriculture. The 2020 campaign, Safe & Strong Farms: Grow an AgSafe Canada, takes place March 15-21. CASW is presented by Farm Credit Canada. For more information, visit
agsafetyweek.ca
CN Safety Tips for Truck Drivers (PDF)
CN Safety Tips for Farmers (PDF)