10 June 2008
Freight Train Crunches Tractor Trailer Truck in Albion
Albion British Columbia - The driver of a tractor trailer
truck is lucky to be alive after a collision with a westbound CP Rail freight train about 9:30 a.m.
The accident happened at the railway crossing at River Road and 240th Street.
"He went through the red light and then the arm came down on his truck," said Albert Reynolds, on the fishing boat Witch
Doctor.
The boat was tied up at the Albion pier and the crew had a clear view of the crossing. One of his crew mates was the first to call
911.
Reynolds said the truck went through the red light, then tried to back up. Then the arms came down and engine No. 8626 hit the trailer
of the unit, wrapping the trailer around the signal light tower and spilling the load of scrap paper on to the track.
They saw the truck back up, "then he got clobbered," Reynolds said.
The train stopped fairly quickly, though, he said. It was stopped a couple hundred metres down the track and the only apparent damage
was a bent hand rail on the front engine.
"It's a good thing he was where he was otherwise he would have been gone," Reynolds said.
CP Rail Cnst. Clark Rutledge said there were no injuries and no hazardous goods involved, but that it would take a while to clean up.
The driver who was watching the clean up said when he started to cross the track, it was clear, but then the arms started to come down
and he tried to back up his truck.
Albion ferry traffic was diverted along River Road during the delay.
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