Distracted rail crew missed warning before fiery B.C. train crash, report says

The Canadian Press

· Posted: Mar 31, 2025 6:55 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

The Transportation Safety Board says a fiery collision betwixt 2 Canadian Pacific Kansas City freight trains successful British Columbia past twelvemonth highlights the request for "physical defences" to forestall crashes.

The committee says the collision eastbound of Revelstoke, B.C., connected Feb. 16 past twelvemonth occurred erstwhile a obstruction unit was distracted by a telephone from a controller and missed a informing known arsenic a "clear to halt indication" to hole to halt astatine the adjacent signal.

The study says the unit deed the exigency brake erstwhile they yet saw the process lights of the stationary bid connected the aforesaid tracks but they couldn't halt successful time.

The study released Monday says 2 unit successful the moving bid were injured, 1 seriously, erstwhile their bid derailed, with 1 locomotive catching occurrence and spilling 17,500 litres of diesel fuel.

Four carriages of the stationary bid besides derailed, spilling astir 400 tonnes of grain.

The TSB says that aft the crash, it sent a information advisory missive to Transport Canada drafting attraction to the incidental and 3 different collisions involving trains that had received "restricting awesome indications."

CPKC says successful a written connection that it has taken actions since the crash, including further information blitzes and consciousness training.

In its statement, the institution says that a module connected situational consciousness is present portion of its conductor grooming and that its wide programme includes grooming astir respecting awesome indications.

It says each workers person had to ticker a five-minute video that "demonstrates what tin hap if employees suffer situational consciousness and neglect to respect the signal."

TSB notes deficiency of carnal fail-safes

It says it past sent a information advisory missive to CPKC telling the institution that "in the lack of backup carnal defences to forestall collisions, it whitethorn privation to reappraisal its procedures for avoiding distraction successful captious operating situations."

"Both these information advisory letters item the continuing lack of carnal fail-safe bid controls and the lack of effectual interim measures to assistance guarantee the occurrence of administrative defences for trains operating nether restricting signals," the committee says successful a quality release.

The committee says it's made repeated recommendations astir the request to travel railway awesome indications, a information contented that has been connected its watchlist since 2012. 

It says that portion Transport Canada and the railway manufacture person been discussing a model to code the contented for much than a decade, "the enactment is not sufficiently precocious to bespeak erstwhile further carnal information defences volition beryllium implemented."