A Mount Currie man was struck and killed on the train tracks near Pemberton just two days before stakeholders met with CN Rail to discuss the creation of a safe trail beside the tracks.
"It’s really painful timing that it should happen just before the meeting," said Friendship Trail proponent Maureen Douglas.
"I think (the presentation to CN) told the story and the need fairly well and they were certainly listening to that. Unfortunately it had more resonance because of the incident that occurred this weekend."
According to police, 47-year-old Curtis Stewart Pascal came out of the woods beside the rail line around 8:30 Sunday morning and was walking along the tracks alone. The train crew repeatedly sounded their emergency whistle to no avail.
"I understand that he just wasn’t responding to the emergency whistle and the train, at the same time, activated its emergency brakes," said RCMP spokesperson Devon Jones. "But as you know a train takes pretty much a kilometre or so to stop even when they put their brakes on full tilt.
"There doesn’t appear to be any indication of any kind of foul play, no indication of suicide and we don’t have any indication at this point if alcohol was a factor."
The accident has rocked the small First Nations community.
"Right now the community is incredibly saddened at the news of the accident," said Mount Currie Administrator Sheldon Tetreault. "It’s incredibly tragic. Everyone’s thoughts are with the family at this time and (we) really want to provide comfort to the family and friends. And we also obviously respect the grieving of the family and the community."
Tetreault is another one of the four proponents of the Friendship Trail, along with Douglas, Jordan Sturdy and Nathalie Klein.
The proposed trail would run more than seven kilometres from Pemberton to Mount Currie. People already use the area to walk or ride in between the two communities despite the fact there is no official trail there.
"As far as our group goes," said Tetreault "it gives us greater resolve, and I hope all of the community greater resolve, to find practical ways to increase the safety of the residents between Pemberton and Mount Currie.
"And our belief is that the best way to do that is through establishing a controlled route. We think it should run parallel to the tracks and we believe that the Friendship Trail can accomplish that."
The scheduled meeting between CN representatives and the trail proponents took place on Tuesday afternoon. This is the first time the two groups have met face to face.
Douglas said she was feeling very positive after the talks.
"They acknowledged our concerns," she said. "They see that there’s an issue. They are very open to the idea of some kind of co-operative resolution."
One of the next steps, she said, is to do a more detailed site analysis of the proposed trail area.
CN Regional Manager of Communication Graham Dallas reiterated that Tuesday’s meeting was positive. Still, the railway has concerns about having people so close to the trains.
"Certainly there’s cause for concern on the part of the railroad because of the proximity of having people, hikers and bikers, that close to the rail. That’s one of the reasons why we’ve expressed our concern about this for a number of years," he said.
"(It was) a good productive meeting with local community representatives. We agreed to a further meeting to discuss their proposal in more details. It’s too early at this point to tell if CN can find a way to accommodate a walking and biking trail close to our right of way but we have agreed to explore the issue to see what, if anything, can be done."
Pemberton RCMP are working with Stl’atl’imx Tribal Police and CN Police and the B.C. Coroner’s office is also investigating the accident.
Roughly 24 hours after the accident in Pemberton, CN was busy cleaning up a second train derailment north of Squamish.
This is the second derailment on that stretch of tracks in less than three months. Monday’s incident, at 10:45 a.m., happened roughly three kilometres from the derailment on Aug. 5. Nine empty lumber cars of a northbound freight train came off the track roughly 22 kilometres north of Squamish.
When asked if there was a concern about the tracks in that area, CN’s Dallas said the investigation was ongoing and it was still too early to tell.
"Certainly it’s not our belief that there’s any tie between these two but, as I said, the investigation is underway by us and the transportation safety board I understand also have someone on the scene," said Dallas. "Certainly I can’t speculate on what the cause could have been until I have a much better idea of what actually happened there."
The Aug. 5 derailment spewed sodium hydroxide into the Cheakamus River, decimating the fish population. The cars in Monday’s derailment did not tumble down the embankment and stayed fairly close to the tracks.
"There were no dangerous goods on this train and no environmental concerns," said Dallas.
The rail line was back in operation by that evening.
