July 15, 2008

CN train collides with stolen paving machine

EDMONTON

Luck and timing prevented a CN train derailment at a Sherwood Park overpass from becoming deadly, say police.

Const. Wally Henry of the Strathcona County RCMP called it “very fortunate” that the 85-car train didn’t fall onto travellers on Highway 16 after hitting a stolen paving machine deliberately left on the tracks last week.

“The possibilities — with the overpass being over a major highway as well as where the train derailed — the train could have easily come down on the highway from the bridge,” he said.

While a rupture in a locomotive’s fuel tank caused a brief fire, there were no hazardous goods on the train, which was heading westbound near Highway 21 when it hit the paver parked on the south side of the overpass.

Jolene Legacy, 29, said she was in her trailer at a nearby mobile-home park when she heard a loud noise she thought was the sound of a train loading.

“I heard the bang, the trailer shook a little, and (when) I came outside I could see the spotlights on the bridge,” said the mother of three. “It was still on fire when I was out here.”

As she looked across the overpass, Legacy could see the train tilting off the tracks as well as a few cars that had fallen down the embankment. It turned out the train had smashed into a paving machine used at a nearby construction site where workers have been busy on the Highway 21 twinning project overseen by Aecon Construction and Materials.

Someone then left it on the tracks, an act Henry said that if police end up finding the suspects could result in a charge of mischief endangering life. It’s an offence police often seek in cases where a people tamper with someone’s brakes, he noted.

For Legacy, the incident left her outraged.

“It’s crazy, and I’m really upset that it was so close,” said Legacy, whose home is a few hundred metres from the track.

The stretch of Highway 16 between Cloverbar Road and Highway 21 was closed for 20 hours to allow workers to remove debris, salvage the 12 cars and two locomotives that derailed and replace damaged track.

“Let me stress — this was an act of vandalism,” Henry said in response to the questions.

Canadian Press

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