MONCTON, N.B. -- A woman escaped with only minor injuries after she was struck by a CN freight train while out walking near the tracks in Moncton, N.B.
Doug Forbes is used to hearing trains from his apartment, but on Monday morning, the sounds were different.
"There was a lot of noise, a lot of screaming," Forbes said. "I had to go down actually, around the corner to my steps to look and it looked like the train had stopped."
That was just before 10 a.m. Two people were walking along the tracks, and while one managed to get out of the way of the 3,000-metre long freight train, the other didn’t.
"One of the persons was struck by the train," said Platoon Chief Dennis Dollemont of the Moncton Fire Department. "It was a female in her 30s. She was treated at the scene and transported to Moncton Hospital."
Dollemont says the woman’s injuries appear to be non-life-threatening.
According to CN rail, train tracks are private property and it is illegal for anyone to walk along, or on, the tracks.
It’s also dangerous.
"There was a guy hit here on these tracks a few years ago that died from it," Forbes said. "The train tracks are way up there and this is the trail they take."
Still, it’s something Moncton resident Diane Saulnier sees regularly.
"Almost every day we see somebody walking by or can hear, because there’s a lot of trees there, but you can hear them walk by and talk with each other," Saulnier said.
