20 March 2007
How Did He Survive?
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Firefighters place driver Willy Toews into an
ambulance.
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Winnipeg Manitoba - It was a crash that didn't appear
possible to survive.
But the Niverville driver of a garbage truck that collided with a train did just that.
The owner of a hauling company was pulled out of his truck after colliding with a Canadian Pacific Railway train on the south Perimeter
Highway about 10 a.m. yesterday.
The crash, just west of Highway 330, crushed the truck's cab and ripped it away from the rest of the vehicle with the driver still
inside.
RCMP Const. Lance Rayner of Headingley Highway Services said most of the truck's dashboard went with the train and the driver's lower
extremities were pinned during the crash.
Remarkably, the driver was still conscious after the collision.
"When the first witnesses got to the scene, he was trying to pull himself out of the wreck," said Rayner.
The man was taken to Health Sciences Centre in critical condition and later updated to stable.
Rod Hiebert, an employee at Niverville's Bristal Hauling, identified the driver as company owner Willy Toews. He said Toews could be
released from hospital as early as today or tomorrow.
"It doesn't matter what kind of vehicle you're in - if the one you hit is a train it's never good," he said.
EMPTY CARS
"He hit his head and wasn't with it when everybody arrived. But now his memory and everything is coming back.
"He still doesn't know what happened in the accident."
RCMP said there's no evidence the garbage truck was speeding when it ran into the train, made up of empty tanker cars and grain hoppers.
Rayner said highway conditions were good and the truck driver likely wasn't paying attention.
The collision spun the truck around, blocking the Perimeter's eastbound lanes and backing up traffic for about half a kilometre.
The crossing doesn't have protective gates.
CPR spokesman Ed Greenberg said the locomotive was travelling at less than 40 km/h, lower than the speed limit on the company's La
Riviere rail line. The crossing's warning lights had activated, he said.
Neither of the train's two crew members was injured.
With the road blocked, Mounties diverted eastbound traffic from the south Perimeter onto McGillivray Boulevard at Oak Bluff.
The injured driver may want to thank the manufacturer of his truck, Rayner suggested.
"It's the structure of the truck. Volvos are noted for what they call their life compartment," he said.
"A Volvo in a crash can look pretty ugly. But as long as you can get a door or window open, people usually get out of them rather
unscathed."
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