‘I remember every February the 8th’: Alberta’s deadliest train crash​on February 5, 2025 at 12:00 pm

“We couldn’t believe our eyes, what we were looking at,” he says.

“I think about it (often), not just at this time of year.”

As more firefighters joined Hanington to extinguish the inferno, Repecka helped round up buses to carry survivors from the scene.

Ambulances and a helicopter took the injured to hospital. Repecka worked to identify the train passengers, checking the names of patients in the Hinton hospital against Via’s passenger list. He worked at the grisly crash scene for a week.

There are good memories, too, of overwhelming generosity in a community responding to the crisis.

The local pulp mill and the Obed Mountain and Gregg River coal mines sent rescue personnel and equipment. Doctors and people with first-aid training offered help. Calls poured in from surrounding communities such as Jasper, Edson and Grande Cache.

At the Alberta Forest Technology School, which provided shelter to some of the passengers, people left piles of quarters beside pay phones.

Glenn Taylor, now Hinton‘s mayor, was new to town and working at the pulp mill. The mill’s emergency response team immediately rushed out to help.

A sense of purpose and even calm grew in the community as people pitched in to help, he says.

“It’s in times of trouble that you truly see what your friends and neighbours are made of. … While we never want to face a disaster like that again, it’s comforting to know that if it is visited upon us, we have the ability to respond,” Taylor says.

“Every year, our thoughts and prayers go to the families of the victims and those left behind. While they weren’t Hintonites, or from Hinton, they will be forever linked to Hinton.”

Uniformed firefighters will lay a wreath on Tuesday at the crash site during a private ceremony, Fire Chief Peter Ensor says in an e-mail. Three of the department’s current members were involved in the incident.

The town is marking the 25th anniversary of the tragic date with an exhibit ending on Sunday of newspaper clippings, photographs and a DVD at the municipal library.

The display includes the report from Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Rene Foisy, who heard 56 days of public hearings and evidence from 150 parties during the commission of inquiry that investigated the crash.

The inquiry report published in January 1987 described a “railroader culture” that prized loyalty and productivity over safety, says information on the town website.

The inquiry also blamed the “fatigued” crew of the freight train for running a red light, speculating the engineer was ill and the brakeman was asleep.

Representatives from CN and Via say the tragedy triggered major improvements to railroad safety.

“For us, this was the worst accident we’ve ever experienced,” says Via spokeswoman Catherine Kaloutsky.

“As a result of that, very specifically, we brought out a whole new emergency procedure training for our onboard personnel, and that continues to be part of their entry-level training, and it’s something that is updated on a yearly basis as well.”

CN spokesman Jim Feeny says: “Twenty-five years later, this is an entirely different railway than it was at the time.”

Training and work rules have changed, technology is better, railroader culture emphasizes safety and the number of accidents is declining, Feeny says.

“It was a tragedy and our thoughts remain with the people who were affected. There were many people affected very terribly by it, including people at CN, some of whom are still working at the railway,” he says.

“It’s a reminder to everyone at CN that safety has to be a defining focus of our culture.”