Colin Hanington followed a plume of smoke to reach one of the deadliest railway crashes in Canadian history, and almost 40 years later remembers the silence when he got there.
Hanington was a volunteer firefighter doing what he could to help after a CN Rail freight train and a Via Rail Super Continental passenger train collided east of Hinton, Alta., on Feb. 8, 1986.
Twenty-three people died.
He was 22 at the time. Initial details about the scope and the location of the crash that day, he said, were “sketchy.”
When they got closer, they followed the plume of billowing smoke to the crash site. “As we got closer it was like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe what we’re seeing,'” he said.
“It was just the pile of cars and the smoke. It was unreal. It was just a big, tangled mess.”
Hanington said paramedics followed right behind them and began helping survivors while he and his team put out the fires. The horror, he said, was all around.
“The one car had burned already. You could see figures inside,” he said.
“I remember stepping over pieces of remains on the tracks where the freight cars had come over and hit the passenger cars, and people were inside,” he said.
They found one member of the CN Rail crew. “They had moved some debris, and we actually saw his hand and then I realized I’d been standing on top of him. He was covered and I had no idea.”
Hanington remembers being horrified.
“Look at what this guy went through — and here I am standing on him. He was deceased, of course, but that bothered me. It was like adding insult to injury.”
Hanington said despite the chaos on the ground, nobody was calling out for help. “It was quieter than you’d think,” he said.
“Everything that happened was settled other than the fire going and, of course, us making a racket. There wasn’t a bunch of noise. Just the sound of the fire, people talking and some yelling.”
A public inquiry concluded that the collision was caused by the freight crew failing to stop their train in time because of incapacitation or other unknown factors.
The Foisy Commission report also highlighted serious flaws in the culture and safety practices at Canadian National Railway.
Four decades later, a stone cairn bearing the date of the tragedy marks the crash site.
Hinton Mayor Brian Laberge said the accident hasn’t been forgotten. “I was a punk kid when it happened. I think it’s interesting how, when you talk to people who were involved, it’s still fresh,” he said.
“People got hurt and that’s impacted people. It’s impacted the first responders. I know there are health-care workers from the hospital who still remember that.”
A plaque with the names of all 23 victims was unveiled a decade ago in front of a rail car at the local museum.
Margaret Schultz, the operations manager for the Northern Rockies Museum of Culture and Heritage, where the plaque remains, said the memories still burn.
“A lady sits in that chair and tells me that she was the only person in the kitchen in the Hinton hospital the day of the train crash and she still kind of has the stress in her eyes when she talks about it,” Schultz said.
“I’ve had people who have come in who lost friends or family members. A gentleman who came in with a bouquet of flowers he wanted to leave here for his wife who passed away in the train crash,” she added.
There’s no mention of the accident in the museum.
“I’m hesitant to create an exhibit about it or include it in an event because it’s still very alive in people’s memories,” Schultz said.
Lianne Lefsrud, an associate professor of engineering safety and risk management at the University of Alberta, said the crash happened in a period of 17 seconds when the engineer missed the advance signals to prepare to stop.
“A train that size would take miles to stop. Was it foreseeable? Yeah. Passing signals happens all the time,” Lefsrud said.
“Many steps have been taken since to prevent it from happening again and enhanced train control is something that our regulators are looking at in terms of automatic braking on trains.”
Lefsrud said there’s no doubt that the railway system is much safer than it was 40 years ago. “Significantly safer and, again, sadly it’s because of learning from events like this and a retrospective analysis of what went wrong.”
Julianne Threlfall, a spokesperson for CN, said the anniversary serves as a reminder of the critical importance of safety and the company’s commitment to learning and growing.
“We honour the memory of those who lost their lives,” Threlfall said in a statement. “And [we] extend our deepest sympathies to their families, friends, and all who continue to carry the weight of that day.”
