CP Rail Tragedy at Trail

April 24, 2007

Brothers and Sisters,

Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of this missing Engineer today. Everything else pales in comparison.

Bill Brehl


Crewman missing and feared dead after freight train derails in Trail

Matthew Ramsey
The Province

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

A crewman is missing and feared dead after a train carrying fertilizer came off its tracks in Trail yesterday, spilling some of its load.

The CP Rail train was heading into a marshalling yard in Trail from Warfield at about 3:30 p.m. when its braking system apparently failed.

The train was hauling ammonium sulphate fertilizer for Teck Cominco Ltd.

Two of three men in the lead locomotive were accounted for last night. The third, the train's engineer, had yet to be found.

"There are any number of possibilities [about what may have happened to him]," said Sgt. Nick Romanchuk of the Trail RCMP last night. "Given the time that's past [since he was last seen] there's certainly a possibility he may have succumbed in the crash."

Romanchuk said the Transportation Safety Board is investigating, along with CP Rail Police. B.C. Ambulance personnel also responded to the incident along with crews from Trail Regional Fire Rescue and Teck Cominco fire department.

The two found train-crew members were in what company spokes-man Mark Seland described as a "critical stress debriefing" last night. The men suffered minor injuries.

Seland said brake failure may have caused the crash.

Witnesses reported hearing a loud roaring sound as the train rolled down the hill, then a mighty crash.

"We do know that the train did encounter some problems with braking and that's what led to this incident," Seland said.

He said the two locomotives and eight cars carrying fertilizer left the tracks near Highway 22A.

"Some of them, we don't know how many of them, have spilled their load," Seland said.

He said CP Rail is confident ammonium sulphate does not pose an environmental hazard in solid form.

"In a solid format [the fertilizer] will not migrate. It's not flowing to a body of water," Seland said.