Standing near the wreck of one of his passenger trains, the head of Via Rail on Monday pledged to do what he could to help investigators get to the bottom of a devastating weekend derailment that killed three of his engineers and injured dozens of passengers.
"I never, in 30 years of service in the industry, lost an employee so far, so it was a tragic accident," president and CEO Marc Laliberte told reporters in Burlington, Ont.
"It's very sad and we're all behind the families."
Passenger train 92 derailed on a straight track in good weather Sunday afternoon near Burlington, about 60 kilometres southwest of Toronto. Three Via Rail employees — two senior locomotive engineers and a trainee — were killed when the locomotive and five cars jumped the tracks as the train switched from one track to another — an everyday procedure akin to changing lanes on a highway.
Emergency crews were not able to extract the bodies until 8 p.m., nearly five hours after the crash.
The accident seriously injured three passengers — they and 42 others were taken to hospital, where eight remained on Monday afternoon. The three most seriously injured suffered a broken leg, a back injury and a heart attack. One passenger reportedly was ejected from the train through a broken window.
On Monday, Via Rail identified the engineers who died as Ken Simmonds, 56, Peter Snarr, 52, and Patrick Robinson, 40. The three were pronounced dead on the scene.
Simmonds, from Toronto, leaves behind a wife and one daughter. He joined Via as a locomotive engineer in 2007 and started his career with CN in 1979.
Snarr, also from Toronto, leaves behind a wife and two daughters. He also joined Via as a locomotive engineer in 2007. He started his career with CN in 1978.
Robinson, of Cornwall Ont., was a new Via employee who was on board to observe as part of his familiarization program. He joined Via in Oct. 2011.
He leaves behind a young daughter and son.
A woman who answered the phone at Robinson's Cornwall home asked for privacy and time to grieve, adding that the family is trying to cope.
The Halton Regional Police service is conducting its own investigation to determine whether the train was brought down by vandalism or sabotage.
"Our primary role is to determine if anything criminal has taken place here," said Sgt. Dave Cross.
Investigators with the Transportation Safety Board say they'll be looking at every possible factor in the accident, including speed, equipment and which of the three engineers was at the train's controls when it jumped the tracks.
"We're going through step by step looking into every area that might have been causal in this," Tom Griffith, a senior TSB rail investigator, said Monday during a news conference at the accident site.
"It's too soon for me to say right now what the cause was, but we will know."
It's possible that Robinson, a trainee, could have been behind the controls, but he would have been working under strict supervision, Griffith said.
"There were three crew members in the head end of the train. As to who was on the controls — right now we're still investigating that," Griffith said.
While Robinson was new to Via, he was an experienced engineer, said Via spokesman Malcolm Andrews.
"He worked for two or three different railways, including CN, since 1990, in various positions including locomotive engineer," Andrews said.
Part of the training includes a familiarization process where new engineers ride on routes with experienced engineers, Andrews said.
Robinson's prior experience was on freight trains, Andrews said.
No criminal charges have been laid, the TSB's Griffith said, which is why the Transportation Safety Board has taken the lead in the investigation.
In investigating speed, one factor to take into consideration is that the train must slow down before switching tracks, Griffith said. When switching tracks, trains on this stretch in Burlington must slow to 24 kilometres per hour from 129 km/h.
He would not speculate on whether the train failed to slow down, adding that information from the train's black box could answer that question.
The Transportation Safety Board has recovered that box and has started downloading that information, Griffith said, but they "will have to go a little farther" to get the rest of the information because of the damage done to it during the crash.
Burlington Mayor Rick Goldring said Monday he was "awestruck" as he stood on top of a building beside the site on Sunday to take in the grisly scene below him.
"When I looked at the locomotive and I knew that the engineers were probably still in there and they weren't alive, I certainly felt very badly for them and their families," Goldring said.
"And I could see the way the cars were strewn and I obviously had great concern for the people that were on the train."
It was overall a very surreal day, said Goldring, who added he was at home at the time of the derailment but went to the scene as soon as he heard what happened.
"I thought I should be there for the emergency service providers, just to support them."
A law office that successfully led a class-action lawsuit against Via Rail and CN after a 1999 crash has been contacted by a number of injured passengers.
Sutts, Strosberg LLP likely will move forward on a multimillion-dollar class-action, said Sharon Strosberg, adding that it's a very good case.
"We're inclined to start an action, given our experience in that area," she said.
David Onley, Ontario's lieutenant-governor, said in a statement Monday he was saddened to learn of the crash.
"As the Queen's representative and on behalf of the people of Ontario, I offer my sincere condolences to families who have lost loved ones. My prayers are with you, and with those who have been taken to hospital with injuries," Onley said.
"I offer my appreciation and commendation to the emergency response crews from Burlington, Hamilton and Toronto who responded so swiftly to this crisis."
On Monday, as officials in orange safety vests scoured the tracks around the fallen train cars and reporters gathered 50 metres away awaiting more news, rail passengers at a nearby train station waited somewhat anxiously to board
"I'm not too freaked out, although I did think twice this morning," said Holly Lesperance, 19, a Ryerson University business student returning from reading week. "It seems just like a freak accident. I still think it's more dangerous to get in a car than a train."
"I never, in 30 years of service in the industry, lost an employee so far, so it was a tragic accident," president and CEO Marc Laliberte told reporters in Burlington, Ont.
"It's very sad and we're all behind the families."
Passenger train 92 derailed on a straight track in good weather Sunday afternoon near Burlington, about 60 kilometres southwest of Toronto. Three Via Rail employees — two senior locomotive engineers and a trainee — were killed when the locomotive and five cars jumped the tracks as the train switched from one track to another — an everyday procedure akin to changing lanes on a highway.
Emergency crews were not able to extract the bodies until 8 p.m., nearly five hours after the crash.
The accident seriously injured three passengers — they and 42 others were taken to hospital, where eight remained on Monday afternoon. The three most seriously injured suffered a broken leg, a back injury and a heart attack. One passenger reportedly was ejected from the train through a broken window.
On Monday, Via Rail identified the engineers who died as Ken Simmonds, 56, Peter Snarr, 52, and Patrick Robinson, 40. The three were pronounced dead on the scene.
Simmonds, from Toronto, leaves behind a wife and one daughter. He joined Via as a locomotive engineer in 2007 and started his career with CN in 1979.
Snarr, also from Toronto, leaves behind a wife and two daughters. He also joined Via as a locomotive engineer in 2007. He started his career with CN in 1978.
Robinson, of Cornwall Ont., was a new Via employee who was on board to observe as part of his familiarization program. He joined Via in Oct. 2011.
He leaves behind a young daughter and son.
A woman who answered the phone at Robinson's Cornwall home asked for privacy and time to grieve, adding that the family is trying to cope.
The Halton Regional Police service is conducting its own investigation to determine whether the train was brought down by vandalism or sabotage.
"Our primary role is to determine if anything criminal has taken place here," said Sgt. Dave Cross.
Investigators with the Transportation Safety Board say they'll be looking at every possible factor in the accident, including speed, equipment and which of the three engineers was at the train's controls when it jumped the tracks.
"We're going through step by step looking into every area that might have been causal in this," Tom Griffith, a senior TSB rail investigator, said Monday during a news conference at the accident site.
"It's too soon for me to say right now what the cause was, but we will know."
It's possible that Robinson, a trainee, could have been behind the controls, but he would have been working under strict supervision, Griffith said.
"There were three crew members in the head end of the train. As to who was on the controls — right now we're still investigating that," Griffith said.
While Robinson was new to Via, he was an experienced engineer, said Via spokesman Malcolm Andrews.
"He worked for two or three different railways, including CN, since 1990, in various positions including locomotive engineer," Andrews said.
Part of the training includes a familiarization process where new engineers ride on routes with experienced engineers, Andrews said.
Robinson's prior experience was on freight trains, Andrews said.
No criminal charges have been laid, the TSB's Griffith said, which is why the Transportation Safety Board has taken the lead in the investigation.
In investigating speed, one factor to take into consideration is that the train must slow down before switching tracks, Griffith said. When switching tracks, trains on this stretch in Burlington must slow to 24 kilometres per hour from 129 km/h.
He would not speculate on whether the train failed to slow down, adding that information from the train's black box could answer that question.
The Transportation Safety Board has recovered that box and has started downloading that information, Griffith said, but they "will have to go a little farther" to get the rest of the information because of the damage done to it during the crash.
Burlington Mayor Rick Goldring said Monday he was "awestruck" as he stood on top of a building beside the site on Sunday to take in the grisly scene below him.
"When I looked at the locomotive and I knew that the engineers were probably still in there and they weren't alive, I certainly felt very badly for them and their families," Goldring said.
"And I could see the way the cars were strewn and I obviously had great concern for the people that were on the train."
It was overall a very surreal day, said Goldring, who added he was at home at the time of the derailment but went to the scene as soon as he heard what happened.
"I thought I should be there for the emergency service providers, just to support them."
A law office that successfully led a class-action lawsuit against Via Rail and CN after a 1999 crash has been contacted by a number of injured passengers.
Sutts, Strosberg LLP likely will move forward on a multimillion-dollar class-action, said Sharon Strosberg, adding that it's a very good case.
"We're inclined to start an action, given our experience in that area," she said.
David Onley, Ontario's lieutenant-governor, said in a statement Monday he was saddened to learn of the crash.
"As the Queen's representative and on behalf of the people of Ontario, I offer my sincere condolences to families who have lost loved ones. My prayers are with you, and with those who have been taken to hospital with injuries," Onley said.
"I offer my appreciation and commendation to the emergency response crews from Burlington, Hamilton and Toronto who responded so swiftly to this crisis."
On Monday, as officials in orange safety vests scoured the tracks around the fallen train cars and reporters gathered 50 metres away awaiting more news, rail passengers at a nearby train station waited somewhat anxiously to board
"I'm not too freaked out, although I did think twice this morning," said Holly Lesperance, 19, a Ryerson University business student returning from reading week. "It seems just like a freak accident. I still think it's more dangerous to get in a car than a train."
No comments:
Post a Comment