Investigation underway in one of three train derailments in Alberta

CN Rail crews have been busy dealing with 3 separate train derailments in the past week in Alberta.

The latest incident happened Saturday afternoon when a train heading west from Winnipeg to Edmonton plunged off a bridge near Wainwright. 31 train cars came off the tracks, 17 of them fell into a river valley about 30 kilometres northwest of Wainwright.

CN Rail spokesperson Julie Senecal says the cars were all carrying grain and there were no injuries and there are no environmental issues. She says the bridge sustained damage, which crews were onsite to repair Sunday.

On Friday, 18 cars left the tracks near Hay Lakes, southeast of Edmonton. There were no injuries or environmental issues in that accident either.

However, on Wednesday a crew member was taken to hospital after a CN freight train derailed between Grande Cache and Hinton. 11 coal cars collided with a stationary train in that particular accident.

Senecal says one incident like this is too many.

“Safety is extremely important to us, so we do everything we can in order to minimize the risk.”

An official investigation is underway in the Grande Cache/Hinton incident. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) is looking into whether extremely cold temperatures were a factor in the accident.

John Cottreau of the TSB says they consider many factors before launching an official investigation.

“They’ll take a look at the accident and they’ll determine whether there’s anything to be gained by doing an investigation that will fulfill our mandate, which is to advance transportation safety in Canada.”

The other two derailments are still being assessed to see if an investigation will go ahead. At this point Senecal says they don’t believe there’s a common cause in the three incidents.

With files from Linda Nguyen