Four-year-old girl found wandering on tracks near Toronto subway station
A dangerous situation resulted in a happy ending after a four-year-old girl left her Scarborough home in the middle of the night and wandered onto outdoor TTC tracks used by subway trains.
“She's known for this. I mean, she gets excited when she wants to go outside,” the girl’s mother, who doesn’t want to be identified, told CTV News Toronto Thursday afternoon.
Toronto police said around 1:30 a.m. they received a call about a young girl who was missing from her home near Warden Station, located in the Warden and St. Clair avenues area.
The girl and her younger sister reportedly unlocked the door and then the four-year-old walked out of the home.
“I have a little baby (the sister)… she opened a safety lock on the handle and cracked it open. And I guess my daughter that has autism saw that the handle was off and took the approach to move a dining chair to the back door and climb up and pull the two sliding locks,” the mother said.
The girl was missing for about 20 minutes before her mother alerted police.
“I couldn't focus. I couldn't process it. Everything was going through my head because I'm like ‘she doesn't know what she's doing. She has no idea about what she was doing.’ I had no clue of where she could have went,” the mother said.
Shortly after police arrived to the child's home, they said they received a call from the TTC saying a child was found wandering on train tracks just west of Warden Station.
The family lives a short walking distance from the station and the mother believes her daughter went through their backyard fence into a path that led to the tracks.
TTC spokesperson Stuart Green said the child was spotted at track level by a train operator driving a train towards her.
"Leaving Warden Station toward Victoria Park Station it's an open cut area. So for people that aren't familiar, it's just wide open there. There is a lot of fencing along the side, there are signage and all sorts of things advising to stay off the tracks, but it is exposed to the outdoors," Green told CP24 Thursday morning.
The operator stopped the train and called transit control to cut the power at the track level.
Green said that was necessary as the child was walking along boards over the power rail, which had 600 volts running through it.
Once the power was cut, the operator retrieved the child and brought her on board the train, Green said.
The train then reversed back into Warden Station where her mother and police were waiting.
The child sustained no injuries and is in good health, police said.
The TTC said the train was out of service at the time of the incident and no passengers were on board.
The mother said this is not her daughter’s first time unlocking doors and leaving the home, which prompted the family to add a total of seven locks to their doors.
“I just gotta keep her tied to my waist. There's nothing I can do until I get out of here. Looking to move, yeah, because I don't think it's safe. And I don't like the idea of if she goes missing again or if she tries to escape again she's in the forest or she could end up right back here near the train,” she said.
Green said it’s not clear how the child entered the tracks, which are surrounded by fencing in the area.
"We've checked the CCTV cameras. We checked the fencing 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 got access. But we're looking further into that today," Green said.
Green added that the train operator's "heroic" efforts prevented a tragedy from occurring.
"They (the conductor) were probably a bit shaken last night when this happened. But you know, really did heroic work. I mean, it may sound like a simple thing to stop a moving subway train and bring a child off the tracks onto the train. There's a lot of danger involved in this," Green said.
Just over two weeks ago, a four-year-old girl in Mississauga was killed after she walked onto train tracks and was struck by a GO train. Neighbours in that case said they had previously complained about a lack of barriers preventing pedestrians from entering the track area.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'A beautiful soul': Funeral held for baby boy killed in wrong-way crash on Highway 401
A funeral was held on Wednesday for a three-month-old boy who died after being involved in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby last week.
'Sophisticated' cyberattacks detected on B.C. government networks, premier says
There has been a "sophisticated" cybersecurity breach detected on B.C. government networks, Premier David Eby confirmed Wednesday evening.
Police handcuff man trying to enter Drake's Toronto mansion
Toronto police say a man was taken into custody outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion Wednesday afternoon after he tried to gain access to the residence.
Biden says he will stop sending bombs and artillery shells to Israel if they launch major invasion of Rafah
U.S. President Joe Biden said for the first time Wednesday he would halt shipments of American weapons to Israel, which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah.
Rookie goalie Arturs Silovs to start for Canucks in Game 1 vs. Oilers
Rookie goalie Arturs Silovs will start in net for the Canucks as Vancouver kicks off a second-round series against the Edmonton Oilers Wednesday night.
Nijjar murder suspect says he had Canadian study permit in immigration firm's video
One of the Indian nationals accused of murdering British Columbia Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar says in a social media video that he received a Canadian study permit with the help of an Indian immigration consultancy.
Pfizer agrees to settle more than 10K lawsuits over Zantac cancer risk: Bloomberg News
Pfizer has agreed to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits about cancer risks related to the now discontinued heartburn drug Zantac, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the deal.
Quebec premier defends new museum on Quebecois nation after Indigenous criticism
Quebec Premier Francois Legault is defending his comments about a new history museum after he was accused by a prominent First Nations group of trying to erase their history.
U.S. presidential candidate RFK Jr. had a brain worm, has recovered, campaign says
Independent U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had a parasite in his brain more than a decade ago, but has fully recovered, his campaign said, after the New York Times reported about the ailment.