EDMONTON – CN Rail has filed a $2 million lawsuit against two Edmonton men and a construction company after a piece of equipment parked on a track caused a July 2008 derailment.
The lawsuit names Ian Douglas Gillie and Edward Arthur Vallee as the two men who allegedly stole a large compactor from a construction site in Strathcona County.
The statement of claim says the two men started the 11,000-kilogram compactor, drove it, then “abandoned it on the tracks on the overpass of Highway 16 at some point after midnight.”
The claim also says both men were either affected by alcohol or drugs.
Shortly after midnight, a train smashed into the vehicle, derailing the 86-car train and sending the construction vehicle onto the highway.
No one was hurt in the crash.
The lawsuit also names Aecon Construction Company and an employee named only as John Doe.
CN Rail is suing them because the compactor was left at an unsecured worksite and was vulnerable to theft by leaving an electrical isolation switch cover unlocked.
Information in statements of claim have been not proven in court.
Vallee and Gillie had each been charged with mischief and theft, but those charges were withdrawn in June because of an unlikely probability of conviction.
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