Investigators seek cause of freak crash
(The following story by Stan Josey and Paul Irish appeared on the Toronto Star website on January 16.)
TORONTO – An intensive investigation is under way to find out what caused the last two cars of a freight train to derail, crushing a minivan and killing two women.
The accident Wednesday night happened as the 40-car, Canadian Pacific Montreal-to-Toronto train was crossing an overpass in a heavily populated area near downtown Whitby, next to a public school.
The train was headed to a freight yard in Etobicoke.
The victims – Kathleen Kellachan, 36, of Whitby, and her niece Christine Harrington, 19, of Keswick – died instantly when their vehicle was struck and then crushed by two containers, one carrying a cargo of Scotch whisky.
Harrington owned the minivan and was believed to be driving south on Garden St., said Durham Region police Sergeant Paul Malik. Brock Winter, Canadian Pacific’s vice-president of field operations, expressed condolences to the victim’s families involved in the “most unusual accident.”
“Safety is a priority in our company and our safety record stands as the best in the North American railroad industry,” Winter told a news conference yesterday afternoon.
“This is our first fatal accident involving a train derailment since 1986.”
Investigators from the railway, Transport Canada and the federal Transportation Safety Board have begun a probe. Winter said it was too early to say whether the cold snap was a factor.
Police said they did not believe the derailment was the result of sabotage.
Winter said 14 “modular containers” holding mixed freight flew off the cars and were strewn beside the tracks and on the roadway after two specialized rail cars derailed.
He said the train cars actually derailed “a few hundred feet” east of the bridge, so special safety devices – extra rails – installed near overpasses f