Pictured: Jordan Camille, and his wife Candice (Image Credit: CFJC Today / Kent Simmonds)

By Dylana Kneeshaw

JORDAN CAMILLE

‘The snow was blinding’: Rider gives harrowing account of being struck by train during storm

Jan 22, 2020 | 5:07 PM

KAMLOOPS — A Kamloops man recently struck by a train in the Rayleigh area is now out of the hospital and recovering at home.

Jordan Camille is a contract range rider with Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc alongside he and his wife’s business Camille’s Horsemanship.

The morning of January 12, Camille was on a contract job to find several loose, malnourished horses, when he and his horse Rory were struck by a CN train.

Camille says while he was working to retrieve the horses near the tracks in Rayleigh, the blowing snow and wind picked up substantially — making for near white-out conditions.

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“The last thing I do remember was just the wind picking up right out of nowhere, and the snow was blinding,” he says. “I tilted my hat to get it out of my eyes, and that was the last thing I remember.”

Though he doesn’t remember it, when Jordan came to, he called his wife Candice in a dazed state, then hung up on her. She says she knew something was wrong, called 9-1-1, and made her way out to Rayleigh to look for him.

“So it wasn’t until I got closer that I started piecing it together, and then having the train stopped there was too much of a coincidence,” she explains. “And then you start seeing everything coming together and realize that he was hit by a train. I didn’t actually know he was on the side of the road already, I thought he was at the train because I could see Rory there.”

It will take a few months, but Jordan Camille is on the road to recovery. (Image Credit: CFJC Today / Kent Simmonds)

Rory, the horse Jordan was riding, had apparently blocked the full impact of the train from Jordan, but was killed as a result of the crash.

After several days in the hospital, and in the intensive care unit, Jordan is now home, and says the doctors told him it’ll take a few months to recover from his injuries.

“I got a fractured shoulder, a lacerated kidney, and a concussion,” he says. “The last few days have been a lot of sitting on the couch, watching TV, and falling asleep here and there. I’m starting to get the strength to go outside and check on the horses to see how they’re doing, or do a small task around the house.”

Mentally, the Camilles are still shaken up by what happened and figure that’ll be the longest part of recovery.

The loss of one of their horses not only affects the working aspect of their horsemanship business, but their children had a strong bond with Rory as well. Candice says their youngest son Hunter had claimed Rory as ‘his horse’.

“Jordan would pony Hunter down on his horse to school, and then he’d have to show up at lunch hour to pick him up on his horse and bring him back home,” she recalls with a smile. “So he spent quite a bit of time with him.”

Jordan and Candice Camille’s son, Hunter riding Rory (Image courtesy of Candice Camille Photography)

As far as the professional relationship the family had with Rory, Candice says the young horse really helped develop their business style with the training programs he went through with Jordan.

“Rory was learning at the exact same time that Jordan was learning. And they rapidly came to stage five this past year, which is pretty high — there’s not many people with that level of horsemanship in this program. So to be able to develop and grow that quickly is really cool. And for a horse to be able to have that nature and temperament.”

Looking back, the Camille family says Jordan still being here reaffirms their confidence in the relationship they have with their animals, and that someone out there was watching out for them.

“If it wasn’t Rory, it was his (Jordan’s) mom who pushed him off,” says Candice. “You know, you’ve got to believe in a higher power, and his mom recently passed, and I think it had to be the combination of the two that really saved his life.”

(Image Credit: Candice Camille Photography)