11 January 2006
Talk About Luck: Man Survives Being Hit by a Train
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Mounties and CP Rail Police confer at the scene of an accident in
which a 24-year-old local man was clipped by a train last Tuesday after failing to step far
enough away from a passing train.
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Revelstoke - Gary Morris is lucky to be alive after being struck by an east-bound
freight train on the CPR line across form the new Jacobson Ford car dealership on Victoria Road last Tuesday afternoon.
"Witnesses said he was walking down the middle of the track," CP Rail Police Service Const. Larry Parsons said at the scene.
"He apparently heard the train whistle and stepped off the track but he didn't step far enough away and was hit by the train as
it went past."
Emergency Services personnel responded swiftly to the incident, which occurred at 3:15 p.m., and Morris was transported to Queen
Victoria Hospital where he was treated for scratches, bruises, and a a cut on one leg that required 15 stitches, said his
step-father, Don Popplewell.
Glenn Vernon, the engineer who was driving the train, said the 24-year-old "got away lucky." "To be hit by
a train and come out with scatches, bruises, and a cut is pretty well unbelievable," he said in an interview.
Vernon said he saw the young man, who was apparently walking home at the end of his shift at the Frontier Restaurant, and blew his
whistle. "He turned and saw us and stepped off the (north side of the) track... but I could see he wasn't far enough away,"
Vernon said. He kept blowing the whistle but the young man didn't look back and then the train "clipped him," he said.
The train was moving at about 29 miles an hour and Vernon stopped it as quickly as he could. The engine halted by Farwell Plaza and he
said he could not see what had happened to Morris. "I was quite relieved (he wasn't killed)," Vernon said. "It would
have been devastating if he had been dismembered. This was the first time in 35 years that I've hit anything."
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