WATCH: A driver died after a collision with a train on a little-used rail line. Ted Chernecki reports.
A 36-year-old Abbotsford man has died in a collision between a vehicle and a coal train early Saturday morning.
At 3 a.m., Abbotsford police received a report of a crash in the 33000 block of Townshipline Road. Upon arrival, they found the body of a driver of a Volkswagen Jetta.
The impact caused several train cars to derail and collide with BC Hydro power poles, resulting in power outages in parts of Abbotsford. More than 8,000 people were without power during the height of the outage, which has since been resolved.
Cst. Ian MacDonald of Abbotsford police says they believe the car, which was travelling eastbound, crashed into the side of the southbound train at an uncontrolled railway crossing.
It happened on a diversion line that usually sits empty – but Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway have been using it while its main line south of Roberts Bank undergoes an upgrade.
Since July 7, 237 trains have used the line and BNSF is slated to continue using the line until the end of the month.
J. Singh Biln of Southern Railway of B.C. said train crews may not have been aware of the crash when it occurred.
“What we believe is the train was proceeding across Townshipline Toad, and the vehicle hit the train with sufficient force to knock one end of one car down off the tracks,” says Biln. “The truck, or the bogie, continued to roll along the tracks in a derailed condition for about two miles.”
“It reached a track switch in Abbotsford, on a passing track, where the derailed wheel hit a track switch and went further away from the rails and derailed two additional cars. That’s when the air brakes were applied and that’s when the crew realized that something was wrong.”
Cst. MacDonald told Global BC that railway crews have moved the train cars and traffic in Abbotsford is back to normal.
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