A 31-year-old man from the Edmonton area was killed Sunday afternoon when his vehicle was involved in a collision with a freight train.
The man was driving a semi truck southbound on Range Road 264, just north of Highway 633 and east of Villeneuve, when he was struck by an eastbound train.
Emergency crews responded quickly to the scene and STARS transported the man to hospital, but he passed away shortly after arriving.
Staff Sgt. Mac Richards with the Morinville RCMP said officers, who are working with CN rail police, have so far not been able to identify the cause of the accident.
The rail crossing has no lights, bells or gates, but does have white railway crossing markings and a stop sign.
Richards said the crossing has reasonable sight lines for passing motorists and, in his three years with the detachment, he has not encountered any problems there.
“It is not a perfect cross. From my understanding, the track and the road are offset a bit and it is bit of an angle.”
Richards said that, with the driver deceased, it will be difficult to completely understand why he didn’t stop for the train.
“We will look at the statements that people gave us. I don’t know that we will ever find all the reasons, but we will try and piece together as much as we can.”
Richards said the train was not travelling at full speed when the accident happened. The driver’s name had not been released by the time the Gazette went to press on Tuesday.
