Railway blames train derailment in British Columbia on washed out beaver dam
BURNABY, British Columbia — A Canadian National Rail spokeswoman says heavy rainfall led to a coal train derailment in British Columbia.
Emily Hamer said Sunday that a downpour caused a beaver dam to wash out, spilling large amounts of water onto the tracks, causing the train to jump the tracks in Burnaby on Saturday. No injuries were reported.
Hamer says seven cars went off the rails — three of them were lying on their sides while four remained upright. Coal spilled into a nearby creek that feeds into Burnaby Lake, but Hamer could not say how much.
In British Columbia beavers are being blamed for derailing a train and sending coal into the lake. Why not? Beavers have already been blamed for taking out power lines, chewing internet cables and killing Bellarussians. Why not add some environmental crimes to their rap sheet? They are ‘engineers’ you know. They could pull off something like this.
Not sure why Hamer can’t say how much coal went in the lake. Couldn’t you count the coal remaining in the cars, subtract from the original amount you were carrying and provide a number? Come to think of it, I’m also not sure why bandits in the cowboy movies wore kerchiefs either. There weren’t that many people in the wildwest. Wouldn’t you be able to recognize them anyway?
Did you love playing trains as a child? Me too. I can’t tell you how many times my best friend Karen and I robbed this particular train when you could still climb on it. Of course that was before Martinez had any beavers.
