Three elderly women were taken to hospital after a pop can fell onto the SkyTrain track, causing the train to skid to a stop, TransLink revealed yesterday.
The incident occurred Sunday afternoon at the 29th Avenue Station on the Expo Line in East Vancouver.
Four elderly female passengers were injured when SkyTrain’s emergency brakes were triggered automatically by the weight of the pop can on the tracks.
SkyTrain president Doug Kelsey said the intrusion alarm is set to a low tolerance and prevents the train from colliding with objects or people on the track.
“Something with the weight of a pop can might also be a wallet or a cell- phone or a child’s toy,” Kelsey said. “The owner of that wallet — or cellphone or toy — could jump onto the tracks after it.”
SkyTrain had 231 intrusion alarm incidents in the past month. Of those, 80 were caused by garbage and the other 10 by people jumping onto the tracks to retrieve objects.
