A woman was killed after being struck by a freight train in Chatham on Wednesday.
A woman was killed after being struck by a freight train in Chatham on Wednesday.
Chatham-Kent police said in a media release Thursday the female pedestrian was pronounced dead at the scene.
Emergency personnel rushed to the scene of the collision just after 3 pm along the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks on Princess Street North near Colborne Street, police said.
Police did not identify the woman.
The collision remains under investigation, police said. Anyone with information is asked to contact Const. Lisa Rodger at [email protected] or 519-355-1092.
People who spoke with The Chatham Daily News Wednesday didn’t witness the collision but heard the freight train trying to stop as it sounded a loud warning with its horn.
“The brakes were locked on,” said a resident. “The engineer had the horn on constant.”
The crash left traffic snarled in a large area of Chatham since the stopped freight train blocked several railway crossings. To the west, the only two CP crossings open in Chatham were at Keil Drive and Bloomfield Road. The closest way to the eastern part of Chatham was to take the Sherman Brown Bridge on Communications Road.
This is the second train crash to happen in this area in less than two months.
A cube van was struck by a freight train on the CP railway crossing on Colborne Street near Prince Street on May 10, which is within sight of the Princess Street crossing.
One person said the train carried the van for a distance before it was sent spinning around in a grassy area beside the railway tracks.
The driver of the truck, a 43-year-old Chatham man, who didn’t sustain any serious injuries, was issued a ticket for disobeying a rail crossing signal.