By The Canadian Press

Safety board says fail-safe mechanism could have prevented trains from crashing

Jan 26, 2017 | 9:53 AM

RICHMOND, B.C. — The Transportation Safety Board has concluded the lack of a fail-safe mechanism to ensure railway signals were followed contributed to a collision between two CP Rail trains near Golden, B.C.

The board says in a news release that in September 2015, an eastbound train hit a westbound train that was entering a slow-speed track section called a siding.

It says that because the westbound train exceeded the length of the siding, some of the train’s cars were still on the main track when the eastbound train went to pass.

The board says a conductor on the eastbound train was seriously injured in the crash that also forced two locomotives and a rail car off the tracks.

It says heavy radio use between work crews and traffic control during maintenance to restore a track near the collision prevented the sharing of information, causing both trains to pass a number of work zones and slow orders before the crash.

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The board says that since the collision, CP has enhanced its procedures to ensure it uses slow-order flags as required by regulations.

The Canadian Press

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said CP Rail installed slow-order flags as required by regulations.