Two dead following train car derailment

Police say a train derailment in the tiny community of Woss on northern Vancouver Island killed two people and injured three others on Thursday.

Dave Rushton, the community’s regional elected representative, said the cause of the derailment is under investigation but early reports indicate a crew was on the tracks when the rail cars approached without warning.

An RCMP release says two people didn’t survive, while three others have been transported to hospital with undetermined injuries.

Cpl. Tammy Douglas says RCMP received a report of the derailment around 8:45 a.m. She says it took a significant effort by rescue crews to deal with those trapped in the derailment.

At the section of track where the incident occurred, the rail cars are not connected to train engines, Rushton said. The area is a transfer zone where the loaded rail cars pass through before being connected to locomotives, he said.

“Somehow the cars got away and ran down the track, and, of course, it’s downhill,” said Rushton, a director of the Mount Waddington Regional District. “It’s all gravity feed. They ended up right in behind our community here. It’s amazing there wasn’t more damage done.”

Rushton said a backhoe loader, a speeder car and the workers were on the track. A speeder car is a rail vehicle used to transport workers on rail tracks.

The train is operated by Western Forest Products, one of the area’s major employers. Don Demens, the company’s president and chief executive officer, said in a statement Western Forest Products is co-operating with authorities.

The company took over the historic forestry rail route in 2006. Construction of the 90-kilometre rail line started in 1917 and is now known as the Englewood Railway of Western Forest Products. It is the only remaining log transport railway on Vancouver Island.

Woss, about 75 km southeast of Port McNeill, has about 200 residents. Rushton said everybody is aware of the incident and know the victims. He said he originally feared his grandson was one of the injured because he was scheduled to be part of the rail crew, but his duties where shifted.

“We’ve got a couple hundred people here,” Rushton said. “Everybody’s in shock. We went for a long time without a lost time accident here. And now this.”

Douglas said the derailment is being investigated by the B.C. Coroners Service, the Transportation Safety Board and WorkSafeBC.