Train derailment in Nova Scotia injures at least 25

April 12, 2001
Web posted at: 4:19 p.m. EDT (2019 GMT)

STEWIACKE, Nova Scotia (CNN) -- A passenger train carrying 124 people derailed Thursday just north of Halifax, demolishing a building and injuring at least 25 passengers.

Nine of the 14 cars of the Via Rail train skipped the tracks around 1:30 p.m. ET, Transportation Safety Board spokesman Donald Ross said. One of the cars slammed into a feed mill near the tracks, leveling the building. No one was inside the building at the time.

All the injured were taken to hospitals; none had life-threatening injuries, Ross said.

The train was bound from Halifax to Montreal with 109 passengers and 15 crew members, said Via Rail's Bernard Aubin.

The cause of the accident is under investigation.

"Approximately where the train derailed there was a manual switch involved where an old set of tracks used to be. Whether that was part of it or not we haven't determined," Ross said.

The rest of the passengers and crew were taken to the town hall in Stewiacke and will be taken by bus to a community center, he said.

Three arrested in train derailment
WebPosted Fri Apr 13 15:44:01 2001

STEWIACKE, N.S. - Police have arrested three male youths in connection with Thursday's train derailment in rural Nova Scotia.

The three, who are all from the area, are expected to be charged with willful damage to property which may have endangered people's lives.

Police say the boys, whose ages and names were not released, are being interviewed at separate detachments in the area and all have lawyers. Officials say they were all picked up by 1 p.m. local time.

"They are alleged to have affected the equipment," said RCMP Const. Rick Head.

He said while talking to witnesses, police were told about three youths who were spotted leaving the scene shortly before the derailment.

Earlier, police said they had launched a criminal investigation to determine whether someone tampered with a switch located within metres of the accident.

Six of the injured are still in hospital

Senior CN official Keith Heller said investigators have discovered that the lock on the switch had been removed since it was inspected Thursday morning and found in proper working order.

"We tested the system (and) the system was operating properly," he said. "A significant focus of that investigation is on that switch."

The lock controls a lever on the switch that directs trains from the main rail line to a side track behind a nearby agricultural feed store.

"We are just actively pursuing it at this time and trying to determine whether it was an accident or a criminal act," said RCMP Cpl. Chris Paley. "Foul play has not been ruled out."

Crews were still sifting through the crash scene on Friday morning

No one was killed when 10 of 14 cars of the passenger train derailed in the centre of Stewiacke, a small farming community, smashing through the feed store. Twenty-four people were taken to hospitals with a variety of injuries including broken bones.

Six people remain in hospital, including a rail employee who suffered a punctured lung.

"The building appeared to raise," said Don Wood, who was waiting on customers in the feed store when the train crashed into it. "All three of us ran out the main doors into the street."

FROM APRIL 12, 2001: Sabotage not ruled out in N.S. Via train crash

The feed store was at the end of a short spur track, which CN Rail says was still active and well maintained.

Gwen Fulmer was on the phone when the train rumbled into town, and landed just metres from her home.

"I heard the train coming," she said. "It was exceptionally loud. I looked out the window and I saw the train going through the building."

Most of the passengers got out of the wreck on their own, but a dozen were trapped inside for several hours as firefighters cut them out of a car.

The train had 109 passengers and 14 crew members on board as it left Halifax headed for Montreal.

One of the cars rammed into an agricultural feed store

For more information, relatives of passengers were advised to call Via Rail at 1-877-747-0707.

Rail traffic in Canada has increased by three per cent since 1999, but the rate of accidents on the rail system has decreased by 10 per cent.

Written by CBC News Online staff

Sabotage not ruled out in N.S. Via train crash
WebPosted Fri Apr 13 03:12:10 2001

STEWIACKE, NOVA SCOTIA - Two dozen people were hurt when a Via Rail train carrying 123 passengers and crew members derailed in a farming town in Nova Scotia Thursday afternoon, slamming into a building.

Injured receive treatment

Investigators are still not sure what happened, but Thursday night they confirmed that they're looking into whether a switch was thrown the wrong way.

"Foul play has not been ruled out," RCMP Cpl. Chris Paley said. "Certainly there is a switch they're looking into whether it was tampered with or not."

Rescue workers freed the last of 12 people who were trapped inside the train within a few hours. Two cars were badly mangled, and one of them was torn open.

Injuries ranged from small cuts to broken bones. All 24 people who were hurt were expected to be OK, according to Nova Scotia's Health Department.

"Everything seemed to go in slow motion … the walls were caving in," said a passenger whose wife was injured in the derailment. The couple managed to crawl out through a hole in the floor.

Seed mill plowed by train

"Cars are kind of tipped on their side … you can see a train sitting in the roof of the seed mill building," resident Lori Smith told CBC Newsworld.

Four people were in the building – a feed mill converted into a store – when it was hit, but they escaped injury.

"A number of sections of the train have literally taken the building apart," said Stewiacke Mayor Bruce Lohnes.

It was unclear how fast the Via train, carrying 109 passengers and 14 crew members, was travelling when it derailed between Truro and Halifax.

At first officials said it was probably going about 80 km/hr, but later suggested the train might have been going over 110 km/hr. Nine of 14 cars went off the tracks.

Seven people were taken to Truro Hospital with injuries such as fractures and chest pains. Medical staff said some people were drifting in and out of consciousness.

Truro Hospital spokeswoman Krista Burill said the centre enacted an emergency plan and called in extra staff.

The train was heading from Halifax to Montreal.

For more information, relatives of passengers were advised to call Via Rail at 1-877-747-0707.

Although rail traffic in Canada has increased by three per cent since 1999, the rail accident rate has actually decreased by 10 per cent.

This latest Via derailment occurred exactly one week after the Canadian Transportation Safety Board issued a report into a deadly crash two years ago.

FROM APRIL 5, 2001: Fatal Via crash blamed on human error

Last Thursday, the board recommended several ways to improve passenger safety, including changing the way manual switches are thrown on busy tracks.

Written by CBC News Online staff