The union that the conductor killed in a Sept. 15 derailment near Ponton was a member of is requesting a coroner’s inquest.
The Teamsters said in an Oct. 1 press release that they had written to Manitoba’s chief medical examiner to ask for an inquest, saying that he died from a broken bone that bled for nine-and-a-half hours because paramedics weren’t allowed to attend to the wreck site, though the union said who made that decision or why is unclear.
An engineer who was also a member of the Teamsters was seriously injured in the crash, which occurred where a culvert had been blocked and water had washed away some of the ground underneath the railway.
"Our hope is that an inquest will shed light on how this incident could have either been prevented or, at the very least, how to ensure critical medical attention could have reached these two workers sooner, easing their suffering and perhaps making it possible for a 38-year-old man to still be with us," said Teamsters Canada Rail Conference vice-president Roland Hackl.
