Stretchers on Skytrain, a safety issue
I spent Saturday at the Pan Pacific Hotel attending a professional development session of the Travel Media Association of Canada (TMAC). It was a good day. At five o’clock my two friends and I began our journey home from Vancouver’s Waterfront Station. As we walked through the Station, past the elevator, on our way towards the trains, I noticed that a stretcher was being loaded onto the elevator. Being a former nurse, I mentally wondered if someone had a medical emergency and was being transported to an ambulance. Continuing on our way, we went down to the skytrain platform and boarded one of the cars. The three of us sat near the end of the car, two on the first double seat and I sat behind them. We were no sooner in our seats than the stretcher was brought onto the car, occupying space between the opposing doors. Two people transferred the stretcher onto the car, a man and a slim lady. The man went to a seat further along in the car. The lady sat on the jump seat near the door. The person on the stretcher was a man, lying in a semi-prone position, with his head supported firmly to one side, apparently, so that a breathing apparatus could be secured to cover his nose. The apparatus was connected to a box located on the stretcher. Within a couple of stops I noticed that the man, who had assisted the stretcher transfer onto the train, departed. The train was fairly busy, as this was between five and six o’clock in the afternoon. My friends and I were traveling to the King George Station, the end of the line in Surrey. By the time we reached there, the stretcher occupant, his attendant, myself and my two friends were the only ones still on that end of the car. When the train pulled into the station, the attendant stood to maneuver the stretcher out of the door. It is not an easy task for a woman, a fact I can attest to, as I have moved many hospital stretchers around hospitals during my career days. It is okay to move them down the corridors, but maneuvering them into elevators and through doorways can become problematic. My friends and I waited patiently for the stretcher, which now blocked our exit, to be removed. As it left the train, my friends quickly stepped out of the car and I immediately attempted to follow. However, as I stepped between the doors they shot out hitting me hard. I attempted to stop them, however they caught me with enough force to propel me backwards into the train. I was slammed flat, hitting my head with a crack and my entire back, hip, elbow and even my hands. My friends had heard the thump as the doors hit me and turned to see me flat on my back inside the train. Thoroughly shaken up and hurting in a lot of places, I was conscious and knew the train would be taking off immediately. As I lay on the floor of the train, I had a quick vision of riding the "midnight train" to wherever, which prompted me into action! So I painfully got myself up and managed to hit the red emergency button. My friends struggled to open the doors from the outside. As the door opened they reached in to help me get out before the doors slammed shut again. I did not use the elevator as I could see it was being used for the stretcher patient at the time. We did not see anyone from TransLink on that level, so gingerly went down to the lower level. We found a TransLink attendant downstairs. I reported the accident to him. He offered to call an ambulance, however I did not feel I was in imminent need of medical attention. My head ached, I was sore and shaken up, but nothing seemed broken. I had assistance to get home and could see my local (Langley) medical people as needed, rather than spending the night in the Surrey hospital emergency!
When I had the opportunity to consider the events that had occurred, I knew that accident would not have happened if the stretcher had not blocked the exit. The time of the door-opening is preset and limited to quick exit by agile passengers. Nothing slows it down. Elevators have sensors that prevent the doors closing if the opening is occupied or in hospitals where stretchers are used, they can be locked open with a special key. On Skytrain, there are no sensors on the door to prevent them closing if someone or something is passing through. There should be sensors on all doors for safety reasons! Wheel chairs, strollers and bicycles all can be propelled by one person quite rapidly, therefore they may impede traffic only minimally. In this case, even if we had been able to evacuate the car first, the stretcher with it’s occupant, being a long, and somewhat cumbersome unit, would have been caught by the door with considerable force. Those units should have two attendants for transport of this sort and a TransLink attendant should be present to supervise the transfer, locking the doors until the car has been evacuated by all those who wish to leave.
I was lucky to have only sustained soft tissue injuries and a concussion, none of them are life-threatening. However, I am in considerable pain from the injuries I did sustain, and am presently having physiotherapy treatments and taking medication for them. My doctor says it will take some time for me to get over the effects of this accident.
Under similar circumstances that might not have been the case and the outcome could have been quite different.
Think of these scenarios:
Had there been a mother and baby or small child caught by the door. The small child or baby could have been seriously injured or death might have occurred.
Many others have limited mobility and many Seniors have brittle bones, a fall like mine would more than likely have left them with broken bones, especially a broken hip at the very least.
Had there been a fire and our rapid exit had been cut off by the stretcher, the occupants of 1/3 of that car could have been trapped until the stretcher could be removed.
Had there been an accident and the car needed to be evacuated promptly, again exit would have been impeded.
In our province we have done much to advance the ability of handicapped people to get around. Street corners have long since been sloped for wheelchairs. Buildings have wheelchair access. Rick Hansen made our province aware that consideration had to be given to the needs of the handicapped. That is all well and good. However, I do believe that this is a situation where the safety of the general public must take priority over the desires of a few individuals. There are other alternatives. We do have handi-dart cabs and transfer ambulances to help the bedridden get to their destinations. If more bedridden people decided to use gurneys, with the assistance of one lone care giver, to use the Skytrain for transport, we would have a dangerous situation for regular Skytrain commuters. We are all being encouraged to use Skytrain, however we all must consider our own safety too.
