Swift Current Online was on the scene of a train derailment involving 33 train cars last night. The incident occurred around 7:30pm on the east side of Waldeck, 20 km east of Swift Current. Traffic was being slowed in the area as the derailed train cars were in the ditch between the tracks and the westbound land of Highway 1.
Deputy Fire Chief with the City of Swift Current Fire Department, Darren McClelland tells us what the derailed train’s cars were transporting.
“No dangerous goods and anything that was possibly dangerous goods would have been batteries or batteries acid and it is on either end of the train and those cars are upright. As far as how many cars, I don’t know and they didn’t know we are estimating about a mile of cars that are flipped over."
McClelland also added last night they had not heard what the official cause of the derailment was.
"We don’t know the case, we talked to someone from Waldeck who works for Canadian Pacific (CP) railway and he said in Waldeck the weather was extreme. Trees were bent right over, the grass along the ditches here is bent right over and it’s flattened. I don’t know if it was a tornado or a plow wind but it was pretty windy."
In a statement from CP rail they outlined that there had been no injuries at the scene with no public safety issues to report.
The cause of the incident is now confirmed to be extreme and sudden weather present in the area known as "plow winds." CP rail is hoping to have the line open by later this afternoon.
Sat, May 18, 1:00 PM
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