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Warn readers this is dangerous

Editor: Re: Tour of the track, Oct. 15.
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Publishing this photo with a story on Transport Canada safety initiatives sends a mixed message

Editor:

Re: Tour of the track, Oct. 15.

I was amazed to see a photo of a man taking a picture of a train while squatting in the middle of the track, and this paper puts it in the front page and not in the editorial section on rail safety.

The front page reports on officials from the City of White Rock and BNSF Railway touring the line in efforts to discuss how to improve safety to the people of White Rock and its visitors, and this photo is right beside it.

That photo you published sends a mixed message on the importance of rail safety, especially when it looks like you are endorsing the actions of the train photographer and his disregards to his own safety.

A head-on shot of a train on the tracks is amazing, but the photographer put others in danger if the train had gotten too close.

It’s hard to tell in the photo how far the newspaper’s photographer, the man and the train are apart from each other, but this paper should be stressing the importance of rail safety and the issue of trains through White Rock, not send mixed messages to the public.

This topic has been in the paper for the last four months, and this reader wonders why Peace Arch News has not been placing ads on the importance of rail safety when all the paper had to do was contact Operation Lifesaver – a national organization on rail safety – and gotten all the media this paper needed to create the ads.

Dana Gill, White Rock