New Brunswick - Train bound for Halifax collides with truck

ninthstargod

TB Lurker
Credits
0
ADAMSVILLE, N.B. — No one was hurt, but witnesses described a high-speed collision between a Via Rail train and a tractor trailer in New Brunswick as a frightening accident that might easily have caused serious injuries.

RCMP say the Halifax-bound passenger train was travelling at about 120 kilometres per hour on Thursday morning when it collided with the empty container of a tractor trailer at a crossing in Adamsville, north of Moncton.

Investigators said if the truck had been loaded, it could easily have caused the train — carrying 120 passengers — to derail.

Mack Greening told the Moncton Times and Transcript that he saw the crash from his window across the street.

He says the train "exploded" through the centre of the trailer like a scene from an action movie, sending pieces of metal flying and spinning through the air.

The train carried portions of the truck for almost one kilometre down the track before grinding to a halt. Passengers were then taken off the train, put on buses and taken to Moncton, N.B., to complete their journey.

The accident occurred as the truck crossed the rail tracks on its way to a peat moss dealer at about 11:30 a.m., when the train was about 20 minutes away from Moncton.

Aurora Guignard, a passenger on the train, said she first became aware of the accident because there was "debris in the air, the smell of deisel gas . . . and it came to a screeching halt."

"I heard the train whistle blowing and it doesn’t normally blow that much here. It’s a shorter blast. I thought, ‘That’s strange,’" Greening says.

"I looked out the window, across the road, and I saw a tractor trailer just crossing the railroad tracks and the next thing I see is a train exploding through the centre of the trailer."

Greening said his first thoughts were for the transport’s driver.

"I got over there and there was a man walking towards me from the parking area trying to use a cell phone . . . I thought he had witnessed it, so I said, ‘Did you see what happened to the driver of the truck?’ and he said ‘I’m the driver of the truck’."

"I said, ‘You better look up and thank God.’ And then I tried to go get him to buy me a lottery ticket."

Mazerolle says the cause of the crash is still under investigation.

"It was rainy and foggy and it is an uncontrolled (crossing)," he says.

mctn103164544164549provincial0.jpg


site link
 
Top