Two killed in collision with train in Headingley

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This article was published 27/08/2019 (2375 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two seniors were killed when a pickup truck collided with a Canadian Pacific freight train Monday afternoon in the RM of Headingley, RCMP say.

On Tuesday, police said the 75-year-old male driver and a 65-year-old female passenger died after the train dragged the vehicle onto a bridge on Roblin Boulevard, between Alboro Street and Highway 334. The truck, which had been heading east, was crumpled and pinned on the bridge by the northbound train.

The family of the driver declined to speak Tuesday with the Free Press.

Emergency crews — including Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service and its water rescue unit, CP Police and EMS personnel — were called to the scene around 4:20 p.m. Monday, where the driver and passenger were pronounced dead.

A STARS air ambulance was dispatched but soon cancelled because the helicopter “was not medically required,” according to a spokesperson.

The scene was cleared Tuesday morning, but the front of the train — which is parked on the other side of the bridge spanning the Assiniboine River — showed the brunt of the collision on its right side. Tire marks and shattered wood on the bridge indicate the truck was dragged for roughly 30 metres, where it was partially wedged underneath the train.

The rail line involved is CP’s Glenboro subdivision, a low-usage branch line from Winnipeg to Souris that services CentrePort Canada, with a speed limit of 48 km/h.

Where the tracks intersect with Roblin Boulevard, there are automated warning bells and flashing lights, though no gates to impede traffic when a train passes by.

A Headingley resident who has lived along the track for 12 years said Tuesday the crossing would be safer if it had gates.

“Just because of the slope of it, coming either direction, especially if you are heading east, there’s a bluff of trees that we’ve often said there needs to be arms coming down on that. And if you’re travelling west when the sun is going down and the sun is very bright… a couple of flashing lights isn’t going to do it,” said the woman.

She said her husband and daughter were out Monday night walking their dog and heard the crash.

The woman said she was familiar with the couple killed in the collision; they lived in Headingley for many years.

“They know these tracks. The couple’s crossed this track a number of times. The way the wind was blowing, the sound, I don’t know. I don’t blame the engineer or anyone, they did their thing… It’s unfortunate that a tragic accident needs to happen for them to realize that these (safety) things need to be done,” she said.

The area resident noted the few trains that pass along the track blow their whistle ample times, “sometimes to the point where we go, ‘Oh my gosh, can you lay off the horn?'”

No collisions involving vehicles had been reported at the crossing site in recent years.

The Transportation Safety Board said it’s collecting information on the incident for statistical reporting. The Canadian watchdog will not deploy to the scene, as it fits the definition of a Class 5 occurrence, with “little likelihood of identifying new safety lessons that will advance transportation safety.”

The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference expressed condolences to the families of those who died.

TCRC spokesman Christopher Monette said a locomotive engineer and a conductor were staffing the train at the time of the incident, and both CP and the union have offered them “full support,” noting train staff tend to be “profoundly affected” by such incidents.

The union group wrote Tuesday that Ottawa and the rail companies have closed and upgraded dangerous rail crossings, “but last night’s tragedy is a deadly reminder of how much more work remains to be done.”

Manitoba Public Insurance said, over the past five years, there have been an average of five train collisions involving motor vehicles in the province and 10 per cent of train collisions involving motor vehicles are fatal.

RCMP continue to investigate.

nicholas.frew@freepress.mb.ca

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca

nadya.pankiw@freepress.mb.ca