Rabbi Levi Bialo, a teacher in Cheder Chabad of Toronto and director of youth activities in Beis Chabad of Markham, was killed this morning in a dreadful train accident in the middle of the city. Bialo, in his early twenties, had just completed Shacharis and was on his way to escort his wife to the Chabad School, which he never reached. The time of the livaya will be announced shortly.
It is noteworthy that this has been the fourth tragedy, which has hit Toronto's frum community recently. A similar incident occurred on Erev Pesach, in which the 22 year old son of Rabbi Mordechai Levine, head of the Kashrus System in Toronto was killed in an accident.
Boruch Dayan Hoemes.
This from the local news paper
By OLIVER MOORE
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
A 25-year-old Thornhill man was killed yesterday morning after driving his car under the barrier at a level crossing north of the city and stopping in the path of an onrushing GO train.
Police are investigating whether Levi Bialo was blinded by sun as he drove onto the tracks in Richmond Hill, a spot that was marked by drop-down barriers, flashing lights and a bell.
Rabbi Levi Bialo, ob’m
this from Col
Rabbi Levi Bialo, a teacher in Cheder Chabad of Toronto and director of youth activities in Beis Chabad of Markham, was killed this morning in a dreadful train accident in the middle of the city. Bialo, in his early twenties, had just completed Shacharis and was on his way to escort his wife to the Chabad School, which he never reached. The time of the livaya will be announced shortly.
It is noteworthy that this has been the fourth tragedy, which has hit Toronto’s frum community recently. A similar incident occurred on Erev Pesach, in which the 22 year old son of Rabbi Mordechai Levine, head of the Kashrus System in Toronto was killed in an accident.
Boruch Dayan Hoemes.
This from the local news paper
By OLIVER MOORE
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
A 25-year-old Thornhill man was killed yesterday morning after driving his car under the barrier at a level crossing north of the city and stopping in the path of an onrushing GO train.
Police are investigating whether Levi Bialo was blinded by sun as he drove onto the tracks in Richmond Hill, a spot that was marked by drop-down barriers, flashing lights and a bell.
York Regional Police Sergeant Dave Mitchell said yesterday that the car was travelling at roughly the speed limit, 50 kilometres an hour, when it hit the barrier. The barrier rode up and over the car. Mr. Bialo then hit the brakes and was killed by a southbound train loaded with commuters.
“It looks like, right now, that he didn’t see the control arms,” Sgt. Mitchell said.
Police believe that Mr. Bialo, a rabbi and youth leader at Chabad Lubavitch in Markham, stopped his car because he was surprised by his contact with the control arm.
What they can’t explain at this point is why he failed to heed the blaring horn as the train approached. Instead he halted with his Acura Legend positioned in such a way that the train slammed directly into the driver’s side of the vehicle.
The train had just left the Langstaff station, second most northerly on that line, and was headed southbound to Union Station. It collided with Mr. Bialo’s car in Markham at the spot where the tracks cross Green Lane, just east of Bayview.
The wrecked vehicle was pushed several hundred metres down the track and Mr. Bialo was declared dead at the scene. He leaves his pregnant wife and their two-year-old son.
The camera mounted on the train showed no other vehicles at the level crossing, Sgt. Mitchell said. Police, who are trying to determine the effects of the sun on Mr. Bialo, would like to speak to any other drivers who were on that stretch of road around 7 a.m. yesterday.
No one on the train was injured, though the crew was shaken up by what they had witnessed. The stranded passengers were taken to Toronto by bus, and train service on the Richmond Hill line was reopened in time for the commute home.
