CFTK-TV was on scene Wednesday afternoon as Fire and Police Departments attended to a suspected fatality on the train tracks.
At this time, neither RCMP nor CN Rail have released any details on the incident.
This would not be the first time someone has been struck by a train at the CN Rail yard in Terrace.
According to CFTK's records, this would make the 7th death by train strike in that rail yard in the past decade.
The City of Terrace has been lobbying CN Rail and the Provincial Government for many years to build a second overpass or a pedestrian overpass in the area.
CN did consider it and applied for funding to build an alternative to the Sande Overpass in 2007 - but that did not come to fruition.
Terrace Mayor Sean Bujtas says it's been an enduring intiative;
"Yeah. This has been an ongoing problem in the railyard, and it's been a bit disappointing that both CN and the Provincial Government have not been able to come together to come up with some solutions to cross over our tracks. We continue to see more and more trains coming through our community. And unfortunately, so far there's been no movement on on adding in any kind of pedestrian overpass or vehicle overpass.And, you know, two things that I think are needed in our community.
We've been pushing the government to try and work on a solution for pedestrian overpass. The overpass we have currently, the walking path is not adequate enough for folks, especially people with mobility issues. And then it's just it's too far to go for some folks. And people decide to take unnecessary risk. And the the other problem, too, is, you know, CN needs to work on on their fencing and trying to make sure that the fencing is in better shape. To prevent people from travelling, trespassing on their property."
And Bujtas says that the overpass is still on the table;
"Yeah, it's one of those ones that's on our radar always. And we'll continue to advocate the province to try to to to do better and try to find solutions. And you know, we'll continue to push CN to be a partner in that as well, because they're the ones that are coming through our town with all this this rail traffic...
It's just really tough to hear that, you know, these situations happen in our community and they continue to happen. And it's, it's unfortunate that higher levels of government are not willing to step up. You see the work that they're doing in the big projects they're doing in communities out here from around Terrace. And it would be nice if they started to recognize Terrace a bit more.
You know, we've had some recognition for sure from the Province and things like the RBA[Resource Benefits Alliance]. But when I look at things like, you know, the Federal Government building a brand new Haisla bridge in Kitimat, the Feds and the Province putting the two of them I think $140 million into water infrastructure in Prince Rupert. It's it's a bit disappointing that we're not seeing some, some of the higher levels of government looking at our community, you know, as we service both of those two communities and they need us."
