Inquest into Manitoba train conductor's death delayed after opinion changes on whether he could've survived

The medical opinion has changed on whether Kevin Anderson could have survived a 2018 train crash that left him trapped for hours and bleeding to death, prompting a delay in the inquest set to examine the incident.

A six-week inquest called by Dr. John K. Younes, Manitoba's chief medical examiner, was scheduled to begin Monday. It has now been rescheduled to begin on Jan. 10, 2022.

Anderson, 38, was conducting a Hudson Bay Railway freight train that derailed after going over a washed-out section of rail in a remote area of northern Manitoba on Sept. 15, 2018.

The rails and ties were in place but hanging over an empty space 15 metres long and almost five metres deep, according to a Transportation Safety Board report.

It all collapsed under the weight of the train, leaving Anderson and a 59-year-old engineer co-worker pinned in the wreckage, seriously injured with no means of communicating with anyone.

Anderson died from his injuries while still trapped nearly nine hours later. His co-worker was extricated nearly 10 hours after the crash and airlifted in critical condition to a hospital in Thompson.

An autopsy report on Anderson later said he bled to death after suffering "serious but survivable injuries."

But late last week, Younes' opinion on Anderson's survivability changed — from believing that timely medical services could have saved him, to his death being inevitable "given the dire circumstances," said Crown attorney Peter Edgett, who is serving as inquest counsel.

The weather at the time was much cooler than Younes was initially led to believe, and even if rescue help had arrived sooner, the necessary medical infrastructure was not in place to save Anderson, a video hearing involving all of the lawyers involved in the inquest heard on Monday.

There's nothing the Thompson first responders could have done, the hearing was told.

Anderson would have needed experts who could perform amputation on site and a STARS-type air ambulance system to transport him.

Younes advised Edgett of the new information in meetings last week.  All lawyers involved in the inquest, including the one representing Anderson's family, agreed to the delay.

Written reports from Younes and Rob Grierson, the province's medical specialty lead for emergency response services, will be provided to the inquest participants later this week, Edgett said.

Younes had relied heavily on the advice of Grierson when making his initial decision to call the inquest, Edgett told the hearing on Monday.

The inquest will probe all of the circumstances surrounding Anderson's death and what, if anything, could be done to prevent similar deaths from happening in the future. The co-ordination of the rescue effort, including the qualifications of those involved, will also be examined.

The train wreckage was discovered by chance about two hours after the derailment when people in a helicopter happened to fly overhead, according to the TSB report.

RCMP arrived around 7 p.m. but due to concerns about leaking fuel, a decision was made to bar access to the site until it could be assessed by trained and equipped personnel. Emergency personnel did not arrive until midnight.

The engineer survived the crash but Anderson's remains weren't extricated until three days after the derailment.