13 February 2005
Man Killed After Truck
Slams Train
Elkhorn - The driver of
a pickup truck was killed instantly when a fully-loaded freight train slammed into his
vehicle and dragged it 160 metres along the track on Friday. RCMP said the crash occurred at about
10:15 a.m. when the truck failed to stop at the intersection of the Canadian Pacific tracks and
Provincial Road 256 on the edge of town and was struck by the 71-car train.
Terry Stremel, 41, the only occupant of the truck, was trapped inside the twisted wreckage and died at
the scene.
Warning lights at the crossing were reportedly still flashing and bells ringing when emergency
officials arrived a short time after the accident.
"Did he try to beat the train, or was his mind on something else - you just don't know,"
said Westman RCMP Staff Sgt. Moe Massart.
WITNESSES CRASH
RCMP said a man driving behind Stremel's pickup truck witnessed the crash.
Stremel's father, Ted Stremel, said he had seen his son, along with a friend in a second vehicle,
drive past a cafe where he was having coffee only moments before the accident.
"We saw him go by," Ted Stremel said from his home through tears of grief Friday. "It
was about an hour later we found out. The Mounties showed up at the house."
CP Rail spokesman Ed Greenberg said the westbound train was going about 65 kilometres per hour when it
hit the pickup, which was heading south out of the village of about 470 people in the southwestern
part of the province.
Greenberg said the crew inside the locomotive spotted the truck shortly before the collision, but it
was too late to brake in time.
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