'Taking their life in their hands': Video shows people hopping on train at crossing

A veteran inspector with the CN Police Service says he's "horrified" after seeing a video shared with CBC News showing two people climbing between railcars as a train rolls through a crossing on Colborne Street south of York Street in London.

The video was captured in February by a dash cam of acar stopped at the crossing in the southbound lane as it waitedfor a CN freight train to pass.

The video shows one man climbaboard a tank car from the south side of the tracks as the eastbound freight slows to a crawl. The man crossesbetween two railcars and jumps down on the north side of the crossing.

Seconds later, and with the train now almost at a standstill, a second man also climbs aboard the train and crosses between the railcars but travels from north to south.

While the men pass between the railcars, the crossing gates are down and warning bells and lights are activated.

Seconds after themen pass through the train, a Viatrain passes on an adjacent track.

"I'm horrified. This is unacceptable," said CN Police ServiceInsp. ScottMcCallumafter CBCNews showed him the video. "There's no legitimate reason for someone to jump onto a moving train."

"They're taking their own life into their hands when they do this. You could lose your life or a limb. It's unbelievable that this does happen. You're asking for trouble doing this kind of thing."

Dave Homer, whose camera captured the video, had a similar reaction.

"That's a really stupid thing to do," he said. "I've seen it happen before but not on a train that's still moving."

McCallumsaid it's illegal to walk past crossing gates when they're down and ignore crossing signals.

He said people fail to understand that a stationary train can suddenly start moving again or reverse direction.

And while railway employees sometimes climb aboard railcars while trains are being switched, McCallumpoints out that they're trained on how to do it safety and stay in constant communication with the locomotive engineer by radio.

McCallum said anyone who sees people trespassing on tracks should call the CN Police Service or the local police.