Woman Witnessed Collision of CN Trains in Prince George

Saturday, August 04, 2007 04:30 PM

Flames climb into the sky at collision site on east side of Fraser River across from Paddle Wheel Park ( photo Opinion250 staff)

A Regents Crescent woman says she heard a train engine blowing its whistle for what seemed to be at least twenty times before witnessing two trains collide on the tracks across the river from Paddle Wheel Park in Prince George just after 10:20 this morning.

Two CN locomotives left the tracks rolling down the embankment but coming to rest before they hit the Fraser River, a third remained upright on the tracks. The two that rolled down the bank, exploded and caught fire right away, syas Wendy Sadoroszney, (shown at right) a resident of Regents Crescent .

“ I was walking the dog along the road near Paddle Wheel Park she said when I began hearing the train engine blowing its horn repeatedly . We always understood that they did that when there was an animal on the track, so I turned and watched to see if I could see any animal , but I couldn’t see any animal. What I did see was the two trains coming towards each other and then they suddenly hit."

Wendy immediately tried to warn residents on the west side of the Fraser River "I ran around to all of the people in the nearby trailer park telling them to get out because the two trains had just collided and I could see that there were tank cars right near the front of the train. No one was coming to the homes to tell them to get out and I figured I had better do that."

The 50,000 gallons of gasoline contained in a tank car near the front of one of the trains was still burning at 4.00p.m. Officials had decided to let the fire burn itself out. "It is venting pretty good" says Deputy Fire Chief John Lane, "So we don’t think there is any immediate danger of an explosion, however, if there should be a blast, we are advising people to leave the area as the concussion from the blast could shatter windows."

This afternoon, as CN crews attempted to create a barrier downstream on the Fraser to prevent the spread of any fuel spill, it appeared that any fuel that had leaked from the train derailment quickly caught fire sending flames and smoke shooting several hundreds of metres into the air above the city of Prince George.

Two cars loaded with lumber burned in tandem with the fuel tanker making it nearly impossible for water bombers to douse the flames. The water bomber did succeed in preventing a fire from breaking out on to the escarpment and spreading through L.C. Gunn park.

The water bomber made nine passes, dropping a fire retardant on the blaze and was successful in preventing the flames from spreading. (click here to see video of water bomber dropping fire retardant)

Earlier, a tanker equipped with a special fire retardant arrived on the scene from the Prince George Airport. It was able to get near the blaze and put a special retardant on a tanker believed to be carrying either gasoline or diesel fuel. The special pumper truck left the scene when told the the vapours were quickly igniting.

The City of Prince George had a representative on the scene around 3:30 this afternoon to set up a site where people forced from their homes could gather, Details on that marshalling point have not yet been released.

Northern Health is holding a news conference in about an hour’s time.

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Posted on Saturday, August 04, 2007 04:30 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Honestjoe on August 4 2007 5:51 PM

I think it's time to give Gordon Campell's gift to CN back to BC Rail. The situation with CN is getting ridiculous, extemely dangerous and environmentally detrimental to all living things. CN does not seem to have the experise to keep their trains on the rails. Is it too much Eastern expertise out of Montreal? Do you notice the absence of Liberal comment after each incident with CN? Nothing will bring back the half a million fish CN killed in another accident or the locomotive engineers who did not have a chance to live their lives to the fullest. It is time for the LAW to come down heavily on the CN and end this needless incompetence in the operation of a railway!

Posted by: REALIST on August 4 2007 6:04 PM

Like I said, Kevin Falcon will try to spin this as a long weekend BBQ put on for the citizens of Prince George by the good corporate people of C.N. They knew C.N.'S record and yet they still stole and sold our property. How much proof do people need to see that Gordon Campbell has been British Columbia's Weapon of Mass Destruction? Our very soul is being sold off to corporate interests. BCR was all of ours and they ran a safe railroad. C.N. is owned by the Americans who see us only as dollars for their plundering. Thanks yet again Gordo, your gifts just keep on giving. Think Shirley or Pat will say anything about this? I doubt their puppet master will let them speak freely.

Posted by: Chadermando on August 4 2007 6:35 PM

I hiked with a friend up behind the fire on the LC Gunn trail and holy crap the wind the fire was drawing in sounded like a jet engine as it was sucked through the trees. I heard about this kind of thing in the firestorm of Dresden and big forest fires, but its quite something to see up close. I think the reason the trees aren't catching fire is because all the air is drawing in from the bottom and going up in the fire column. I was surprised they had no fire patrols up there and figured I might have to be deputized for the job until I got hit with the retardant from the planes, so I buggered off quick. That crap is pretty efficient, you can't get cover from it anywhere.

Looking at the sky it was kind of neat to see where the smoke dispersed if anyone ever wanted to study how particulate disperses from that area of town. It looked to settle out towards Pine Center and the downtown area mostly in the city. The clean air seemed to flow over Cranbrook hill into the Foothills-Lakewood area.

Posted by: Chadermando on August 4 2007 6:39 PM

I kept asking myself what if this happened anywhere from the Carney Overpass along the Nechako to the Wilson park area? How many homes would be directly effected? What would happen if one of the cars was poisonous to our drinking ground water along that stretch of rail? Would the whole city truck in its water from Quesnel?

After three derailments in the vicinity within a year its obvious CN is doing a incompetent job.

Posted by: camoose on August 4 2007 6:42 PM

I can hardly wait for the spin on this accident. I'm sure it will be a good one as they haven't said a word yet. It takes time to craft a good BS story. Or maybe the head officials of CN are all vacationing at corporate headquarters in the good ol US of A. Gordo must be down south with them as there's not been a word from any member of government and he has to OK every word the sheep utter.

Posted by: seamutt on August 4 2007 6:46 PM

Thanks Campbell, Kinsley, great job. Hey CNN you couldn't run a toy train.

Posted by: Palopu on August 4 2007 6:49 PM

You guys are full of it. Firstly CN Rail has been running through Prince George to Prince Rupert BC for almost 100 years. So it can hardly be considered Easterly. In addition, most Railway derailments are caused by track failure, or human error.

In the late 80's or early 90's when the BC Rail was owned by the BC Government there was a similiar accident a little further North of the present one. In that case a number of empty cars were heading South at a high rate of speed (over the speed limit allowed under the rules) and they ran into some lumber cars that were on the track approx where the CN Steel Bridge is. They totally demolished two diesel engines, and of course spilled the lumber all over the place. There were no tank cars involved and no fire. The lumber cars were clearly visible from a distance that would have allowed the South Bound Train to stop, but guess what? They didnt see the cars until it was too late.

Now can you blame that one on Gordo. I think not, you would have to blame it on Glen Clark, or some other NDP'r as they were in power at the time.

In any event I am aware of enough accidents, and near misses by the Old BC Rail that could have killed a number of people that it would make your skin crawl, so dont get carried away with the B.S. The old BC Rail was not, I repeat not, as safe as you would have us beleive.

Any and all of these accidents and near misses are on file somewhere as accident reports have to be filed on every incident, so if one really wanted to he could dig them out and make some comparisons, however I doubt if that would ever happen.

Having said that, I do think that the CN has to come to grips with its safety record, and do something about these derailments. I suspect that part of it is because of the continuous downsizing for the past 20 years. The butt kissing drive to enhance the bottom line, and the inability to attract employees that care for the Company. In addition to a CEO from Chicago who cares for nothing except his huge salary, and photo ops. Much like other CEO's and Politicians around the Country.

Posted by: REALIST on August 4 2007 6:53 PM

Nice flip flop. They are doing a great job yet they need to look into their safety record. Yes, there is a lot of hot air around this latest disaster.

Posted by: Palopu on August 4 2007 6:57 PM

Chander. The Nechako runs into the Fraser which runs to Quesnel. Why would you truck contaminated water from Quesnel to Prince George??

You might want to get it from the creeks in the area, or from the Lakes, or from the Fraser upstream from Northwood Pulp, or from the Salmon River, or from the Willow River. Or? Just west of where the spill occurred.

Posted by: Chadermando on August 4 2007 7:34 PM

Pickenpoo (with his teeth), its all relative....

Posted by: Palopu on August 4 2007 7:51 PM

It would seem some people know about as much about what direction a river runs as they do about Railways.

I never said the CN was doing a great job. I said they have been running through Prince George for 100 years. The old BC rail only arrived here in the early 60's and only then because the Socreds decided to get it running. My point is that the old BC Rail had as many or more derailments over the last 20 years mile per mile than the CN ever had.

The reason you are not aware of it, is because most of them were never reported in the Press, because they were not considered news worthy, or the press was never aware of them.

Hopefully the CN will come to grips with its safety record before they start running the Container Trains from Prince Rupert to the US Midwest. These container trains are going to be 2 Miles long and will be handling 250 rail cars (500 Containers). If they should ever have a serious derailment you will have merchandies scattered for miles.

Posted by: coastb on August 4 2007 8:38 PM

I've worked for both the BCRail and the CN and I can tell you that BC Rail was a thousand times safer than the CNR!
When you consider the track grades and curvature that the BCR deals with as compared to the CN its night and day.
If I pulled that many loaded cars down a 1% grade with the BCR the superintendent would have diciplined me and rightfully so.
This accident today was caused by the superintendent doing that exact same thing! Who's going to disipline him!
You have no business comparing apples to oranges. Every single employee of BCR knew this was going to happen.Fortunately no one was killed,there was no forest fire,no serious enviromental damage. What if there had been an LPG tank and a sulphur dioxide tank.There would be no one in Prince George left to read this!!!

Posted by: Palopu on August 4 2007 8:58 PM

I know and and participated in several incidents that involved the Old BC Rail and the derailment of Dangerous Goods Rail cars. Not the least of which were Caustic Soda, Sulphuric Acid, etc; There were some instances where these cars were pushed right through the safety blocks and through a brick wall. Doors torn off of warehouses, safety blocks blown off their moorings, etc;

Dont give me any crap about BC Rail safety, and especially not when it comes to switching rail cars. I know of at least 10 serious incidents that were written up to the BC Rail management to force them to take a bigger interest in safety.

Every single employee of BC Rail was aware of these incidents after they occured, and all the necessary accident reports were filed. However they continued to happen.

I worked for CN Rail until the early 80's and up until they were privitized they had a good safety record. BC Rail was sold because it was never much more than a 500 mile branch line, between Prince George and Vancouver, and never made a **red cent** except through creative book keeping. There were not to many months that went by that the BC Rail did not have a yard derailment, or a line derailment.

Once they were derailed it would take them 4 to 5 days to get the track up and running and they would reroute their trains via the CN to Vancouver.

Posted by: seamutt on August 4 2007 9:21 PM

Palopu BCR was not allowed to make a profit, that is a well know subject.

Posted by: coastb on August 4 2007 9:57 PM

You are comparing relatively minor switching accidents to envirormental catastrophes like Wabamum and Cheakamus and the loss of life at Mcbride,Taylor and Lillooet.How can you even try to compare these disasters to an acid car going through stop blocks.These types of incidents you refer to happen daily on the CN.But rarely in Prince George because our switchman are some of the best in the world.Given the conditions these people work in and adversarial approach CN management uses against these people not to mention the work sleep cycles these people deal with everday you should kiss their asses.I'll compare our switchmen and women to any in the world.You don't know how good you have it!!!
Do you think it's a coincidence that both these trains were being manned by untrained managers?
BC Rail never ever let management run trains.CN does it daily. In fact they're in the process of training 2000 managers to run engines in preperation for the next strike! Hang on Prince George a bean counter will be running the next train through your neighborhood!!!

Posted by: Palopu on August 4 2007 10:39 PM

Im not comparing anything to anything. Im saying that there have been a number of serious switching problems over the years with Dangerous Goods cars such as Sulphuric Acid, Caustic Soda, SO'2 Etc only a knave or a fool would consider these to be minor switching accidents. If any of these cars had broke apart the disaster would be just a bad as any of the derailments you refer to. With 1000 people working at the Mills and at Husky etc; and only one way out it would have been a disaster.

I worked for CN and when I got to the point that I didnt like it anymore I quit. The same option applies to anyone working for them now, and if fact a lot of people are quitting, and thats as it should be. I am not a CN supporter, however dont make out the BC Rail to be safer that it really was.

PS. The car not only went through a stop block it went through a cement wall and had it gone further could have been a major disaster.

Posted by: Harbinger on August 5 2007 6:57 PM

All that smoke gonna affect the Kyoto Accord? Hope not.

Posted by: thereasonableman on August 5 2007 9:58 PM

Palopu....King of denial and disbelief.

Now you guys know why nothing ever gets done right or looked after.

No matter how clearly you see an issue, and it's necessary solutions, there's always someone with a seriously flawed perspective on the whole deal, that demands to be heard, and won't shut up about it.

Broken brakes are broken brakes, whoever's name is on the door.