(The Vancouver Sun posted the following article by Kim Pemberton on its website on May 17. Art P. McKay was a member of BLE Division 843 in Prince George, B.C.)
VANCOUVER — In the last three years there have been six main-track derailments just west of McBride, where a rail accident this week claimed the lives of two Prince George men.
But unlike Wednesday’s accident, in which a bridge over a ravine collapsed as a CN Rail freight train passed over it, the earlier derailments were all relatively minor, said Ian Naish, director of rail investigations with Canada’s Transportation Safety Board.
“Six derailments (in three years) is a fair number of derailments but they were single-car derailments and nothing really jumps out as unusual about them,” he said. “This is a case where a bridge has collapsed. That’s pretty unique.”
Naish said Transportation Safety investigators are in McBride now to determine the cause of the accident. They are looking at such issues as history of the railway, the age of the bridge and its maintenance and examining CN’s inspection records.
He noted the bridge was built in 1969 and its condition is something investigators would be trying to determine. But Naish said that aspect of the investigation will be difficult because most of the bridge was consumed by the fire after the two locomotives and six train cars plunged off it.
Meanwhile, the widow of conductor Ken LeQuesne said it’s ironic her extremely safety-conscious husband was one of the two men whose lives were lost in the accident.
LeQuesne, and engineer Art McKay, both 51 years old, were long-time employees of Canadian National Railway with 30 years experience each.
“It’s just ironic that he ends up dying in something like this,” said his widow, Lillian. “He was a very careful conductor. He went by the book.”
She said her husband loved his job but was looking forward to retiring to Victoria when he reached 55.
“Ken was a very kind man, a true friend to anyone who knew him. It was just a horrible accident. They (investigators) don’t really know what happened yet. If the bridge went out, or a wheel came off.”
The couple had been married for 27 years and had no children.
McKay, also married and the father of a 25-year-old son and 23-year-old daughter, was described as very athletic and community-minded.
His sister-in-law Nelda McInnis said McKay loved curling, golfing, and coached fastball.
“He was very kind, always thought of someone else. He donated a lot of his time to volunteering.”
She said the family is so overcome with grief they have not really thought about what caused the accident.
The accident occurred around 12:20 p.m. Wednesday when two locomotives and the first six cars of an 86-car freight train derailed at the trestle near McBride. The locomotives and four of the cars fell into a ravine. The other two were at the edge of the ravine. All eight units caught on fire.
CN spokesman Jim Feeny said the bridge had been inspected by CN Rail engineers two days before the accident and it was customary for it to be checked once a week.
“Our engineers did a visual inspection on Monday and we ran our electronic test car over it not long before that, to test the rails and the grade and so on,” he said.
Feeny said the trestle was built in 1969 and was made of wood — which wasn’t unusual. The bridge wasn’t scheduled for major maintenance or replacement as far as Feeny knew.
It received its last annual full inspection in September, Feeny said.
The train was travelling on the CN northern line that links Prince Rupert, on the B.C. coast, to Edmonton.
In Ottawa MP Bev Desjarlais (NDP-Churchill) noted there is clearly something wrong when a train bridge passes an inspection on Monday and collapses on Wednesday.
“This is what we get when the government relies on companies like CN, in this case, to inspect themselves rather than use independent government inspectors,” she said. “How many more Canadians have to be killed before the Liberal government will admit that self-regulation in transport safety is a failed policy?
“When will it quit cutting corners and stop relying on companies that are in conflicts of interest to do the government’s job?”
Marcel Proulx, parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Transport, responded the Transportation Safety Board is the primary agency for investigation into railway accidents. He said any safety deficiencies uncovered through the Transportation Safety Board’s investigation to the department’s compliance activities will be addressed immediately.
Transportation Safety Board spokesman Jim Leveque said the investigation is expected to take quite a while and the report won’t be available in the near future.
CN Rail hoped to reopen its northern line Friday evening.