Weston Train Derailment
January 7, 1970
Just before 6:00 p.m. on the eveing of January 7, 1970, the Sarnia bound CNR train SNR Tempo jumped the tracks at a switch just east of the Facelle plant near Jane Street and Weston Road.
Four people needed to be hospitalized, while ten others were treated at the scene.
Two girls on their way back to school after the Christmas break received the most serious injuries. One twenty year old girl was hurled from her coach and was pinned under another. Another nineteen year old student was impaled by a 2 1/2 inch tube.
Fire fighters had to use a hacksaw to cut through the pipe on either side of her body.
The train itself hit the Facelle plant. One coach came to rest against a 80,000 gallon fuel oil tank just beside a gas pumping station. Crews drained a four-foot deep ditch filled with water fearing some passengers might have drowned. Passengers were taken to the Facelle cafeteria to keep warm after the accident.
Ironically, the same train with the same engineer was derailed on April 20th near the Woodbine race track when a saboteur sawed off a padlock and turned a swicth manually. Two people died in that derailment. However, police quickly ruled out any foul play in the Weston derailment, blaming a broken bolt on the switch for the accident.