SOUTHWESTERN ONTARIO DERAILMENTS

Major incidents in recent years:

Thamesville, April 23, 1999: A Via Rail passenger train derails in the Chatham-Kent community, leaving two crew members dead and sending 100 passengers to hospital after it struck several freight cars. The men killed included a Via engineer and trainee. The derailment was blamed on human error — a track left in the wrong position.

New Hamburg, Jan. 8, 2004: Nearly 100 litres of diesel fuel gush out of a fuel tank after three train cars derail near New Hamburg. One passenger on the Via Rail train, travelling from Stratford to Toronto, is left with minor

injuries, and 180 metres of track is destroyed. An investigation reveals the tank was punctured by a piece of broken rail.

Melbourne, Sept. 13, 2005: A truck driver is killed and a neighbourhood evacuated after a vehicle slams into an 87-car CP train at a crossing on Melbourne Road near Glendon Drive in the rural community, south of Strathroy. Fourteen boxcars derail. Area residents flee. The derailed cars do not include a tanker loaded with dangerous ammonia. Sarnia, CN rail yard, May 27, 2011:

Six dangerous-goods cars derail and a large swath of rail track is damaged after a collision in Sarnia’s CN rail yard while crews switch rail cars.

Glencoe July 29, 2011: Six people are hurt and one killed by a collision between a 22-year-old driver and a train at a crossing west of Glencoe. A four-car train, headed from Oshawa to Windsor, derails but remained upright. The mother of the young man killed later successfully lobbies for gates and signal lights at the crossing.

Clinton, March 29, 2017: A derailment throws nine freight cars off the tracks at an intersection in the town’s south end. No one is hurt, and the train wasn’t carrying any dangerous goods.