28 January 2011

Train and Truck Collide in Ruskin

Ruskin British Columbia - It took several hours for emergency crews to just dislodge a tractor-trailer wedged onto the front of a freight locomotive during a crash in Ruskin late Wednesday afternoon.
 
And the collision between the semi and train forced a few hundred West Coast Express passengers on the last two eastbound trains of the night to take a different mode of transportation for the final leg of their Wednesday night's commute.
 
According to TransLink, arrangements were made to bus passengers from the Port Haney station to the Mission station, with the tracks cleared in time for Thursday morning's commute.
 
The crash occurred at about 5 p.m., when an eastbound grain train was approaching the Maple Ridge-Mission border, parallel to the Lougheed Highway. It struck the trailer of a semi that was straddling the tracks, said Canadian Pacific (CP) Rail spokesman Mike LoVecchio.
 
There was no one injured in the crash, confirmed CP Rail and the Mission RCMP. But the collision caused the tracks to be shut down much of the night, LoVecchio explained.
 
Once the entangled machines were pried apart, the train was moved aside and the track and crossing gear thoroughly inspected.
 
"An accident like this is absolutely preventable," LoVecchio said.
 
Early indications are that the safety arms and bells that alert people of an oncoming train were activated and functioning at the Ruskin crossing, giving anyone in the area ample warning, he said.
 
"So far as we know, they were functioning at the time," LoVecchio said, adding that it's still unknown if the driver was in the vehicle at the time of the crash.
 
This is a level crossing where the driveway that's used to access a cedar mill sandwiched between the tracks and the Fraser River.
 
"It is a spot where we frequently have these incidents," he said. "It has all the precautions in place, there's no reason to stop across the tracks."
 
He used the crash as another opportunity to drill home a safety message to all drivers.
 
"Look, listen, and live," he said. "Before any driver proceeds onto a level crossing, they should stop, check both ways to make sure no trains are coming, before crossing... It's common sense."
 
Roxanne Hooper.