****Gibson slates Sammy****

    Wetaskiwin couple killed by train after woman went back for spouse (with video)  By Cailynn Klingbeil and Jodie Sinnema, Edmonton Journal November 1, 2013                 

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    Cliff Reed describes the scene at fatal train crash.WETASKIWIN - An elderly couple died Thursday after one tried to save the other from the path of a freight train at a crossing on Wetaskiwin’s main street.
The southbound Canadian Pacific freight train hit the couple as they were crossing the tracks near 50th Street and 50th Avenue shortly after 11:30 a.m.
Neighbour Sue Lewthwaite identified the woman as Nazmoon Charran and the man only as Daniel. Charran was believed to be in her 70s and Daniel, 80.
The couple lived a few blocks from the tracks and crossed regularly to get to their business, Main St. Flea Market, Lewthwaite said.
“They were always out and about and going somewhere, doing something. They were very active,” said Lewthwaite, who lived across the street from the couple for seven years.
“I’d go over and have coffee, go for a visit, and would come out in tears because they had me in stitches. I was laughing so much about all their different stories and their adventures.”
RCMP said the man tripped and fell on the tracks.
Insp. Scott Tod said the woman was pushing an empty wheelchair ahead of him. She went back to help as the train approached.
The warning lights, bells and barricades were all working, Tod said.
Witnesses who saw the crash described seeing a body under the train, another body on the road and a wheelchair nearby. Some said the wheelchair had become stuck in the tracks.
Taren Bonter, a branch manager for Cash Canada Financial, was with clients when she heard the train blow its whistle.
“We heard the train honking. It isn’t unusual, but it’s unusual it happened that many times,” she said.
Bonter went out the rear of her store, which backs onto the tracks and is separated from them by a wire fence, and saw two bodies and a wheelchair.
Nicolette Braun was walking to a store with her 16-year-old son when she heard a crash and the squeal of the train’s brakes.
“They both died because the one wouldn’t let the other one be stuck on the tracks. What a hero,” Braun said.
Cherie and Don Johnson own Storybook Ink, a tattoo parlour that backs onto the railway tracks.
“It’s just a tragic event,” Don Johnson said. “It wasn’t a pleasant sight.”
“If you’re panicking and can’t get (the wheelchair) out, I’m not just going to leave my husband there,” Cherie Johnson said.
The Johnsons estimate trains travel on the tracks at least once an hour during the daytime and often make the ground vibrate.
The victims would get a ride from neighbours or friends when needed, but mostly got around on foot.
“I gave them a ride to the airport and the next thing I know, Nazmoon is knocking on the door and has baked me something,” Lewthwaite said. “They were the kindest, sweetest people.”
Shawn Thomas, owner of Access Furniture, said Charran was scheduled Friday to fly to Cuba and often went on adventures to Mexico and around the world.
Tami Williams, manager of Jayded Hair across the street from the flea market, walks across the same tracks every day about 9:30 a.m. and is often stopped by a train.
“It comes with a fury sometimes, flying through,” she said. “I’ve seen kids going flying across. What if you fall or get your foot caught?”
Mark Elder, owner of Jasper Studio, was saving a wood cabinet for the woman to buy and use in her store.
“She was the one who ran the store,” Elder said, noting the woman was five-foot-two and her husband had become immobile in the last year.
The woman had recently told Elder her husband had turned 80.
“He was her full-time job,” Elder said.
He estimated the couple had run the flea market for about 10 years.
Cliff Reed, owner of Reed Cycle, said too many people try to race over the tracks when a train approaches.
“It’s been people thinking they will beat the train and the train always wins,” Reed said.
He called CP’s safety record in town “phenomenal” and said the company constantly maintained the track. “It’s more human carelessness that causes things to happen.”
James Carmichael, regional senior investigator for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, was on scene Thursday investigating the collision.
He said he did not know what the speed limit was for trains in the area, nor what speed the train was travelling when it hit the couple.
“This is a tragic incident all around and our heartfelt sympathies go out to the families and friends of those involved in this,” said Kevin Hrysak, a spokesman for CP.
The incident remains under investigation. Witnesses were asked to call Wetaskiwin RCMP.

my heart goes out the family and aunty naz