Dog survives life-threatening encounter with GO train
Posted December 15, 2016 2:42 pm.
Last Updated December 15, 2016 7:35 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Luna, a two-year-old border collie mix, is alive and well after finding herself on train tracks near Liberty Village as a GO train came barrelling toward her.
On Dec. 8, Luna ran away from her dog walker and for nine hours, managed to survive a list of perilous events that eventually lead her back home to her owner’s door step.
During her run, the beloved pooch was spotted dodging traffic on the Gardiner Expressway and Lakeshore Boulevard.
She ended up on the tracks near Exhibition GO station, in the direct view of a train conductor who applied full brake to avoid the dog. But with the train travelling over 80 kilometres an hour, the vehicle couldn’t slow down in time.
“I felt a thump,” Jonathan Podzyhun told CityNews. “The train went right over the dog.”
The train continued to the next stop at Mimico Station where Podzyhun contacted animal services to let them know a dog had been struck and killed.
But Podzyhun’s assumption was wrong — Luna was alive and well.
Despite all odds, the pooch was able to shake off the traumatic encounter with the GO train and continue on her long trek home to Parkdale.
As her owner’s were frantically searching the neighbourhood for any signs of Luna, she miraculously appeared in the court yard of their King Street West apartment building late that night.
How Luna survived her brush of death with the GO train has been boiled down to a few factors:
- The train was one of the newer style GO trains which are higher off the tracks, giving Luna space to lie down.
- Luna was wearing a doggie backpack that acted as a buffer between her and the under-carriage.
- Luna had the sense to lie down and stay down as the train was speeding on top of her.
She walked away with nothing but a superficial cut on her back.
