Sik-Ooh-Kotoki activities put on hold by train derailment

NO INJURIES IN MONDAY INCIDENT

Damage was not extensive. But activities at the Sik-Ooh-Kotoki Friendship Centre have been curtailed following a train derailment there Monday.

There was nobody in the gymnasium struck by the empty grain hopper car, reports Travis Plaited Hair, the centre’s executive director. But later in the evening, “there would have been kids in there.”

Canadian Pacific officials say two grain cars left the tracks at the level crossing over the Crowsnest Trail. The spur, protected by flashing red lights, leads to loading facilities at the P&H (Ellison Mills) plant farther west.

Plaited Hair says one rail car crashed through a concrete block wall at the rear of the multi-purpose building. A preliminary examination suggested the facility’s structural integrity was not compromised, he adds.

But the gym will remain closed until further notice, he says. A contractor has covered the gaping hole with plywood.

Friendship centre officials are, meanwhile, talking with insurance agents and railway representatives.

A CPR spokesperson in Calgary says the derailment occurred as the train was crossing the four-lane artery during rush hour, about 5:30 p.m. There were no injuries, Mallory McCredie says.

“CP immediately dispatched teams to the site to re-rail and clean up the site,” she says.

Though asked, McCredie did not say whether a crew member was riding the lead car as a safety precaution, as the short train was being pushed across the highway by a locomotive farther east.

She did not indicate the suspected cause of the derailment.

The highway reopened about 40 minutes later, she says. The P&H spur remains in operation.

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