CALGARY — Transit officials are investigating a man’s precarious joyride on the coupling between two light-rail cars in downtown Calgary.
Cellphone video posted on YouTube shows nearly three minutes of a man mugging for the camera as he rides the rails.
SAIT student Laura Bevelander says she and some classmates were taking the C-Train to a graduation dinner last week.
That’s when she saw the man run across the tracks and jump the train just before it rolled out.
He hung on as the transit train went over a bridge and got off at the next stop as if nothing had happened.
A transit spokesman says the matter will be turned over to police for possible mischief charges.
“We treat this very seriously and will pursue criminal charges,” said Brian Whitelaw, Calgary Transit’s co-ordinator of public safety and enforcement.
“My guess is this individual told a few people about this so we’re appealing to the public to help identify him.”
Bevelander says she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
“I thought he was crazy. We were at Sunnyside and he jumped off the other side and came across the tracks and got between the trains.”
She said she used the train’s intercom to warn the operator, but the driver continued to the next station. Once there, he got out and asked her if the man appeared to be OK.
Whitelaw said the standard procedure would be for the operator to stop immediately upon learning that someone was riding between cars, but in this case the train was just nearing a station when the driver was informed.