SHUBENACADIE, N.S. — A teenager pleaded with his father to call him just after the boy tampered with a railway switch and sent a passenger train hurtling off a track, injuring dozens of people, the Canadian Press reports.
The 14-year-old, a skinny teen with a learning disability, raced to his home in Stewiacke, N.S., and phoned his father in British Columbia last year, urging him to contact him when he got the message.
“Hey Dad, I switched the thing on the train track and the train went off and killed, I mean, injured 22 people,” the boy, who can’t be identified under the Young Offenders Act, said in his message.
“Call me back, please.”
A Crown lawyer read the statement in family court Tuesday, moments before the boy quietly pleaded guilty to mischief endangering life in relation to the wreck last April 12.
The teen, who sat with his head on his mother’s shoulder throughout the brief court appearance, was also charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm, but that charge was dropped.
The boy, who was 13 at the time of the crash, was referred by the court to the province’s restorative justice process. That will allow people directly affected by the wreck, including passengers, townsfolk, firefighters and business people, to choose his punishment.
They could recommend restitution, community service or a term of incarceration of up to three years, among other things. Their recommendation has to be approved by a judge when lawyers meet again on June 12.
“Restorative justice is the ideal route for this young offender,” said Bob Hagell, a Crown lawyer. “This is not a break at all. He has to be accountable to the people he injured and to tell the people he injured why he did this.”
The teen, who looked down at the floor and hid his face under a black baseball cap, was charged after a 14-car Via passenger train derailed near the main street in Stewiacke. The train rammed a feed warehouse next to the tracks, injuring passengers and crew and demolishing rail cars. Twenty-three passengers and crew were injured in the wreck, with five suffering permanent disabilities.
Paul Poirier and his wife were headed to Moncton, N.B., from Halifax when the train lurched off the line and slammed into the small feed store. His wife, who was unable to attend the hearing because of her injuries, still faces more surgery and is undergoing treatment.
“Not too many days go by when we don’t think about that day last year,” Poirier of Halifax said outside the courtroom.
“I wanted to see the person who derailed the train . . . and remind people there are still victims recovering from the accident.”
Anne Malick, the boy’s lawyer, said her client was taunted and teased at school in the days following the crash, which shocked the small rural farming community.
She said he has shown remorse and understands the impact of his actions. Investigators found a railway switch and lock were tampered with before the cars were violently wrenched off the track. Hagell said witnesses saw the boy with a hammer near the switch and saw him leaving the scene, a jumble of twisted train cars.
The Transportation Safety Board is still preparing a report on the crash, but it has said the switch and lock were broken moments before the train approached the mechanism. It’s thought the boy, who has never told the full story of the day’s events to officials, tampered with the switch seconds before the train raced toward it.
In Stewiacke, there is little to show of the accident. A pile of dirt and a no-trespassing sign now sit where the Clarence feed store once was located. But most in the community say they’ve put it behind them.
“That was a bad day,” says Roberta Jennings, who watched the crash from her video store across the street from the scene.
“Nobody wants to talk about it.”
One passenger launched a civil lawsuit earlier this month stemming from the crash. Aileen Mary Williams of Dartmouth, N.S., is seeking unspecified damages from Via Rail.