The Province

Derailment kills three CP Rail crew near Field tunnels

- STEPHANIE IP — With files from Shawn Logan of The Canadian Press sip@postmedia.com twitter.com/stephanie_ip

A Canadian Pacific Railway train was travelling more than twice the speed limit just before it derailed near Field early Monday, killing three crew members as the train crashed into the Kicking Horse River.

The Transporta­tion Safety Board of Canada (TSB) is investigat­ing.

CP Rail spokeswoma­n Salem Woodrow confirmed the derailment took place Monday at around 1 a.m. Mountain Time, between Field and Calgary. Field is just west of Banff along the Trans-Canada Highway, near the B.C.-Alberta border.

“It is with great sadness that CP reports that three crew members on-board were fatally injured in the incident,” the statement read. “Our condolence­s and prayers go out to their families, friends and colleagues. A full investigat­ion will take place to determine the cause of this incident.”

Woodrow said the train was carrying “grain and grain products.” The train, which had three locomotive­s and 112 cars, was headed toward Vancouver.

A CP Rail employee with knowledge of the incident said the westbound train derailed as it was exiting the Lower Spiral Tunnel and crossing a bridge over the Kicking Horse River. The Upper and Lower Spiral tunnels are a pair of looped railway tunnels that decrease the track elevation for trains travelling through the mountain pass.

The CP Rail employee — who asked not to be named as he wasn’t permitted to speak on the matter publicly — said the speed limit heading into the tunnels is a maximum of about 32 km/h. He said the final radio dispatch from the train as it was heading into the Upper Spiral Tunnel reported a speed of about 75 km/h, more than double the limit.

“That’s one of the steepest grades on CP, coming down from the top of the hill,” said the employee, who is familiar with that stretch of track. “There’s actually instructio­ns in our timetable about how to come down that hill, like where you should be setting the brakes here and here. It’s very specific and if you do one wrong move, you’re done for.”

The employee said that protocol dictates an emergency brake be applied if a train reaches five kilometres over the limit on that stretch of track, suggesting that means cold weather or a mechanical failure may have been a factor.

According to the Teamsters Canada, the union representi­ng more than 16,000 Canadian rail workers, the three individual­s killed were the train’s conductor, engineer and a conductor trainee.

According to a Facebook post by Albe Bulmer, one of the victims was his son Daniel Waldenberg­er-Bulmer. He wrote, “I lost one of the jewels in my crown last night in a tragic accident while he was training to be a conductor for CP Rail.”

The three-person crew from Calgary had just taken over the train east of Field before the train fell more than 60 metres from a bridge to land in the Kicking Horse River.

The engineer had more than two decades of railway experience, according to union spokesman Greg Edwards. He was uncertain about the other two crew members. Two of the men were found outside and the other was still inside the train.

“Everybody I’ve spoken with both within the company and within the union is just devastated by this,” he said. “It’s just terrible, terrible news … I got the call in the middle of the night and it’s one of the worst calls that you want to take.”

 ?? GAVIN YOUNG ?? A CP Rail train derailed near Field early on Monday, killing three crew members as the train crashed into the Kicking Horse River.
GAVIN YOUNG A CP Rail train derailed near Field early on Monday, killing three crew members as the train crashed into the Kicking Horse River.
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