Via Rail derailment: 3 dead, more hurt in Burlington crash

Three people are dead after a six-car Via Rail train travelling from Niagara to Union Station derailed in an industrial area of Burlington around 3:28 p.m. Sunday.

Via Rail has confirmed that the three killed were employees. All three were locomotive engineers.

According to Rick Goldring, mayor of Burlington, numerous passengers are injured, though there is no information on the severity of the injuries.

Update: VIA Rail Train Accident in Burlington, Ontario

–Three deceased crew members identified –
–-VIA expresses condolences, says “we will find out what went wrong” –
– VIA operations update for Monday –

Montreal – VIA Rail Canada has issued an update with respect to VIA Rail Canada train number 92, en route from Niagara Falls to Toronto that was involved in an accident at approximately 3:30pm local time yesterday in Burlington, Ontario.

There were 75 passengers and five crew members on board the train at the time of the accident, in which all six cars of the train derailed.. There were numerous injuries to passengers and three fatalities, all VIA crew members who were in the locomotive at the time of the accident. They were Ken Simmonds, 56 years old, and Peter Snarr, 52 years old, both from Toronto, and both with more than 30 years of service as locomotive engineers with CN and VIA. The third was Patrick Robinson, 40 years old, of Cornwall, Ontario, a new VIA employee who was on board as an observer as part of his familiarization program.

“This is a truly heart-rending situation for all of us at VIA. Our sincerest condolences go out to the family members of our employees who died in the line of duty yesterday, and our thoughts and prayers to those passengers who were injured,” said Marc Laliberté, VIA’s president and chief executive officer. “Last night, we immediately began to investigate the accident in order to determine the cause or causes, and will continue until we find out what went wrong, and have put in place measures to prevent any such recurrence. We will be offering our full collaboration to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada and Transport Canada in their inquiries, and will be working in concert with local authorities and CN, the track owner.”

Three passengers were airlifted to hospital with serious injuries, including a broken back, a broken leg and a heart attack. 42 other passengers and one crew members were taken to local hospitals. All but nine of these had been released by shortly after midnight.

Anyone seeking information about passengers who may have been on this train may call a special number set up for this purpose, at 1-888-842-6141.

VIA trains today will continue to be detoured or replaced by chartered bus service on the Toronto-Niagara Falls and Toronto-London-Windsor routes. Passengers travelling in south-western Ontario today can check on the status of their train at 1-888-VIA-RAIL (888-842-7245) or at http://viarail.ca .

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Derailed Via train's black box found
Via identifies three employees killed in Burlington derailment

The black box from the wreckage of a fatal Via Rail train derailment west of Toronto was recovered Monday morning, offering investigators hope of finding out what caused the accident.

The Transportation Safety Board said today that the train was switching tracks when it derailed near Burlington, Ont., on Sunday afternoon.

Investigators hope the black box recovered at the scene will tell them more about the train's speed and efforts to brake.

Via Rail identifies engineers killed in train derailment

Via Rail has identified the three engineers who died in a train crash as longtime employees Peter Snarr and Ken Simmonds, and engineer-in-training Patrick Robinson.

Snarr, 52, and Simmonds, 56, were both from the Toronto area and both had more than 30 years experience as engineers with Via Rail and CN.

Forty-year-old Robinson, of Cornwall, Ont., was a new employee at Via Rail and was observing the engineers as part of his training program.

"This is a truly heart-rending situation for all of us at Via. Our sincerest condolences go out to the family members of our employees who died in the line of duty yesterday, and our thoughts and prayers to those passengers who were injured," said Marc Laliberte, president and CEO of Via Rail, in a statement.

Class-action lawsuit filed after deadly Via Rail derailment

Two law offices representing the passengers who were on board the Via Rail train that derailed in Burlington, Ont., last weekend have filed a class-action lawsuit against Via Rail and CN.

Sutts, Strosberg LLP — a law office that successfully led a class-action lawsuit against Via Rail and CN after a 1999 derailment — filed the initial paperwork Tuesday for a multi-million dollar lawsuit over Sunday's deadly derailment that left three engineers dead and dozens of passengers injured. The office filed in conjunction with Falconer Charney LLP.

The notice of action was filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Toronto. One individual — Sandra Lundy from Niagara Falls, Ont. — has been named on behalf of the 75 passengers on the train at the time of the derailment. Lundy was taken to hospital with injuries Sunday and later released.

So we know in whose pockets that multi million dollars will be going.

Via Rail Derailment: Modern train control system could reduce accidents

Tess Kalinowski
Transportation Reporter

As rail investigators continue to sift through clues to the cause of Sunday’s fatal Via train wreck, one rail expert says it’s time Canada considered installing a computerized train control system being used in other countries, including the U.S.

Meanwhile, lawyers filed a class action lawsuit Tuesday against VIA and the CNR seeking $10 million in general damages.

About half of the roughly 70 passengers have indicated an interest in joining the action, said Toronto lawyer Ted Charney, who’s working with Windsor lawyers Harvey and Sharon Strosberg.

SNIP

Positive train control is a computerized system that can shut down a train remotely if the crew misses a signal and travels too fast on a stretch of rail or moves down an unauthorized track, said Greg Gormick, a transportation policy advisor with Peterborough Conservative MP Dean Del Maestro, who chairs the House of Commons All-Party Rail Caucus.

Investigators, passengers seek answers why derailed Via Rail train was speeding

Shock, anger and political jockeying greeted a revelation Thursday that Via Rail Train 92 was travelling at more than four times the authorized speed when it jumped the tracks and slammed into a building on the weekend, killing three employees and injuring dozens of passengers.

The Toronto-bound train, which derailed in Burlington on Sunday, left the station and never slowed down, said Transportation Safety Board lead investigator Tom Griffith. The train’s brakes and signals were working, but black box data revealed the brakes were not applied, he said.

While trains switching tracks along that stretch in Burlington are required to slow to 24 kilometres per hour from 129 km/h, Mr. Griffith noted, Via Rail Train 92 was travelling at 108 km/hr as it switched tracks.