West Vancouver police had to shut down national rail service Monday (Nov. 15) to deal with a truck stuck on the tracks just north of Horseshoe Bay.
The incident happened Monday afternoon when a furniture delivery driver made a poor choice on the winding, narrow Pascoe Road.
“The driver got nervous, and wasn't sure that he'd be able to turn around down the bottom. So he made a bad call and decided to pull onto the train tracks to try to turn himself around. He got stuck," said Const. Kevin Goodmurphy, West Vancouver police spokesman. “It was a bad decision on his part.”
As soon as they became aware of it, West Vancouver police alerted CN Rail, which halted any trains bound for that stretch of track.
Credit is owed to Mitchell’s Towing for getting the truck back on the road without damaging the rail infrastructure underneath, Goodmurphy said.
“What’s at risk here is pretty significant. It took the better part of a couple hours … to hook it up with multiple cables. It was not an easy task, that’s for sure.”
CN sent technicians to inspect the tracks to make sure they were safe before resuming train service.
Railroads are under federal jurisdiction and CN has their own police to enforce the rules under various federal acts. Goodmurphy said he is consulting with them on what the appropriate violation ticket should be.
“I've dealt with vehicles temporarily blocking, but I've never dealt with a vehicle that's actually driven as far down the tracks as this one had,” he said.
