(The following story by June Webb appeared on the North Thompson times website on May 21.)
NORTH THOMPSON — Via Rail made an unscheduled stop in Birch Island at 8:20 p.m. May 12.
Like a scene out of a Hollywood movie, Pat Miner, a resident of Birch Island watched, dumbstruck as a woman, hanging out of a window on the passing train flung herself off.
“I never thought I would witness this ever happening,” said Miner.
One minute he was waving at the train, the next minute he was running inside to hail his wife, Cheryl.
The pair looked towards where the woman lay, convinced she must be dead, only to see her rise, walk down the bank to a neighbour’s driveway and lay back down.
“That’s when we called 911,” recalled Miner.
The woman, an unidentified 24-year-old, then wandered over to the Miner’s yard, asking for help, “I just need to lay down for a bit and I’ll be fine. . .”
Suffering from minor injuries, including “a goose egg on her forehead, a gash across her eyebrow and a badly scraped leg,” the woman could only answer, “No” to questions asked of her.
Via Rail spokesperson, Seychelle Harding reported the train, called The Canadian, was carrying 156 passengers from Toronto to Vancouver, with the next scheduled stop in Kamloops.
The woman broke open an emergency window in the skyline portion of the train, and an employee, eating his dinner spotted her at the side of the tracks and flagged the engineer to stop the train.
Crew members scouring the tracks in search of her were directed to the Miner’s yard.
Shortly after that Clearwater RCMP and ambulance arrived on the scene.
The woman was transported to Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital and later to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops.
MIner reported after looking at the spot where the woman jumped, “she miraculously chose the one section of track with no CN debris laying on the side.”
“This is a rare incident for Via Rail,” commented Harding. “We wish the lady in question a speedy recovery.”