Passenger train collides with car in east Vancouver
Credit to Author: Scott Brown| Date: Thu, 09 Jan 2020 21:19:29 +0000
A driver of car that was struck by a train Thursday afternoon in Vancouver walked away from the crash seemingly unscathed.
Emergency crews attended the collision between the Amtrak Cascades passenger train and a Toyota sedan around 11:40 a.m. at a marked crossing on Kaslo Street, west of tje Renfrew SkyTrain Station.
The car was totalled but the driver, the vehicle’s lone occupant, was uninjured, according to eye-witness Jan Stroomenbergh, who helped free the man.
“I got his seatbelt unbuckled, pried the door open and got him out. He’s older guy, a retired guy like me,” said Stroomenbergh, a train enthusiast who was shopping at a nearby hobby store and was hoping to get photo of the Amtrak Cascades 519 when the accident occurred.
Stroomenbergh watched two other northbound cars blow through the crossing, ignoring the lights, ahead of the Toyota which inexplicably came to a stop on the tracks.
“I saw him stopping here with the gate coming down on his trunk. I turned around and tried to get him to move but, you know, it was too late,” he said.
“There was a big bang and he got spun around.”
B.C. Emergency Health Services says the car’s driver was taken to hospital as a precaution and was listed in stable condition.
No one on the train was injured.
Amtrak said Cascades Train 516, which runs between Vancouver and Eugene, Oregon, was an hour late arriving at Pacific Central Station on Main Street.
Cascades Train 516 is currently stopped south of Vancouver (VAC) due to a vehicle crossing incident. We will update as more information becomes available.
An Amtrak train collided with a vehicle at Kaslo Street west of Renfrew Station Thursday just before noon.
An Amtrak train collided with a vehicle at Kaslo Street west of Renfrew Station Thursday just before noon.
With files from Nick Eagland