MONTREAL (Reuters) - A Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd locomotive engineer was killed on Monday night in a railyard accident in the province of British Columbia, the union Teamsters Canada said on Tuesday.
The 56-year-old father with 32 years of service was the 10th member of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) to die on the job in 24 months, the union said in a statement.
The union gave no further details about the accident.
Rail safety and fatigue were key issues during a recent strike at Canada's largest railroad, Canadian National Railway Co , which saw about 3,200 conductors and yard workers hit picket lines to demand improved working conditions and rest breaks. The strike ended last week.
Transportation Safety Board (TSB) spokesman Alex Fournier said on Tuesday the agency was probing the death but had not yet decided whether to deploy investigators. It was the fifth railway worker death this year, Fournier said.
Calgary-based CP confirmed there was a workplace fatality at its Port Coquitlam yard on Monday. CP said a "thorough investigation is underway into the incident."
TCRC said in the statement the latest incident at CP further underscored the need for government and industry to work toward preventing senseless railway tragedies.
"Our hearts go out to the locomotive engineer’s family and everyone who worked with him," said the president of the TCRC, Lyndon Isaak. "The rail industry is in crisis. We have lost ten of our sisters and brothers over the past 24 months. It’s ten too many."
In February, three CP crew members were killed after a grain train derailed near Field, British Columbia.
(Reporting By Allison Lampert in Montreal, Kelsey Johnson and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Tom Brown)
