While vacating a vehicle stuck on tracks near a Malakwa railway crossing, Gilles Robert Joseph Thivierge was struck and killed by a 58-car freight train.
On Thursday, March 26, the BC Coroners Service confirmed the identity (and age) of the 61-year old Malakwa resident, who died after he and the vehicle he’d been in were hit by a westbound freight train.
The incident occurred just before 10 p.m. on Saturday, March 21 near the Malakwa Road/Sommerville-Husted Road crossing.
BC Coroners Service spokesperson Barb McLintock says that prior to the incident, Thivierge had been riding in the backseat of a Chrysler sedan. Also in the vehicle were two women, a relative and a friend. At approximately 9:45 p.m., the vehicle left the road near the intersection and ended up getting stuck nearby on CP Rail tracks.
“The three persons in the car got out of the vehicle, but Mr. Thivierge was struck by a 58-car westbound freight train before he could get clear of the tracks. He was deceased at the scene,” states McLintock.
The two women were taken to hospital in Salmon Arm and released soon after.
The BC Coroners Service and RCMP continue to investigate the Thivierge’s death.