A man is in critical condition after a VIA Rail train hit his vehicle at a level crossing in L’Île-Perrot on Wednesday.
Posted at 4:19 p.m.
Around 12:45 p.m. Wednesday, the driver of the vehicle, a 41-year-old man, entered the tracks at a level crossing on Boulevard Perrot Nord and got stuck.
The VIA Rail train collided with the rear of the vehicle.
Investigators have not yet established whether the barriers at the crossing were about to lower when it passed or whether they had already descended.
The driver of the van was transported to a hospital in Montreal for injuries deemed serious. “We would possibly fear for his life,” said agent Valérie Beauchamp, spokesperson for the Sûreté du Québec.
Following the accident, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) sent a team of accident investigators to the scene. The TSB is an independent agency that investigates air, rail, marine and pipeline occurrences.