GIRL OR BOY? TO TEST OR NOT TO TEST IS A PARENT’S DILEMMA {page 13} GOOD SPORT WEEKEND SHOW OFFERED TIPS TO GET MOVING {page 4}
LONDON
THE ENVELOPE, PLEASE
WHO TOOK HOME AN OSCAR? {pages 10-11; metronews.ca/london}
Monday, February 27, 2012 www.metronews.ca News worth sharing.
DAVID RITCHIE/THE CANADIAN PRESS
Train wreck
Three Via engineers killed in derailment 45 passengers injured, three seriously
Emergency crews help extract Via employees from the locomotive of a train that derailed in Burlington on Sunday.
A slight bump followed by people and luggage flying through the air is how one passenger is describing a train derailment in Burlington, west of Toronto, on Sunday that killed three Via engineers and left three passengers with severe injuries. The time between the train leaving the tracks and the crash was only about 10 seconds, but it felt like “forever,” said Deanna Villela of Welland. Villela was among 75 passengers travelling on train No. 92 from Niagara Falls to Toronto when the train left the tracks at about 3:30 p.m. Area residents described a chaotic scene of emergency vehicles, sirens blaring and helicopters buzzing overhead. The locomotive and one passenger car flipped onto their sides and crashed into a small trackside building. At least two passenger cars behind it were driven off the tracks into a L-shape. All six cars derailed, a Via official said.
Deadly derailment Transportation Safety Board investigators were on the scene Sunday. A key piece of evidence will be the train’s equivalent of a black box, which recorded the event. Weather was not believed to be the cause, as it was clear and dry at the time of the crash.
Amid the twisted metal and debris, emergency crews scrambled to pull passengers to safety. Some were carried away on boards and stretchers while others, looking dazed and battered, were led out by emergency workers. “There’s no question it’s very tragic,” Via chief operating officer John Marginson said at the scene. “We’re a relatively small company, we’re a family, we know everyone by name. We certainly feel for the families of the colleagues that we lost.” THE CANADIAN PRESS