A young girl has been safely reunited with her parents after a terrifying close call with a TTC train at Warden Subway Station overnight.
Around 1:30 a.m., Toronto police received a call that a four-year-old girl was missing from her home.
Police said the child had left the home before in a previous incident and that the parents had added additional locks to their door, but the child was able to open the locks.
The child lives near Warden Station, located at Warden Avenue and St. Clair.
Shortly after police responded to the child’s home, they received a call from the TTC that a child had been found wandering on the train tracks just west of Warden Station.
TTC spokesman Stuart Green said the child was spotted at track level by a train operator traveling towards her.
“Leaving Warden Station for Victoria Park Station. This is an open area. So for people who aren’t in the know, it’s just wide open. There’s a lot of fencing on the side, there’s signs and all kinds of things advising to stay off the tracks, but it’s exposed out in the open,” TTC spokesperson Stuart Green told CP24 Thursday morning.
The operator stopped the train and called transit control to cut the power at track level.
Green said the child was walking on planks over the power rail, through which 600 volts had passed.
After the power was cut, the operator pulled the child out and put him aboard the train, Green said.
The train then turned back to Warden Station where her mother and the police were waiting.
The child was not injured and is in good health, the police said.
No charges have been filed, but police said parents were given safety tips.
The TTC said the train was not in motion at the time of the incident and had no passengers on board.
It is not clear how the child entered the tracks, which are fenced off in the area.
“We checked the CCTV cameras. We checked the fence last night in the immediate area. We didn’t see any gaps in the fence. We couldn’t see anything on the video that would suggest how the child gained access. But we’re looking into it more today,” Green said.
Green added that the operator’s “heroic” efforts led to a “happy ending to a very dangerous situation”.
“They were probably a bit shaken up last night when it happened. But you know, they really did a heroic job. I mean, it might sound like a simple thing to stop a moving subway train and lift a kid off the tracks onto the train. There are a lot of dangers associated with that,” Green said.
Just over two weeks ago, a four-year-old girl in Mississauga was tragically killed after she stepped on train tracks and was struck by a GO train.
Safety is our primary concern and upon reviewing the CCTV we cannot determine how the child reached the tracking level. We’ve checked the fence in the area and it seems secure, but we’ll be back to do a more intensive check. This is alarming, but fortunately, a very rare occurrence.
— TTC Media Relations (@TTCNewsroom) August 11, 2022
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