An Edmonton woman, who was excited to ride the rails, quickly changed her tune when her train got stuck in the snow for more than 24 hours and her young daughter dislocated her arm.
This, according the story told by Melissa Viau on her Facebook page while her Via passenger train from Vancouver to Toronto was stuck on the tracks overnight in western Saskatchewan near Tako in blizzard conditions.
“Finally on the train! It’s so much roomier than the planes! I love it,” she wrote on Thursday.
But as the blizzard worsened, her tone changed. Overnight, she wrote: “They just announced another hour or two of wait time in this spot in the middle of nowhere. My enthusiasm about taking the train is completely gone.”
Early Friday, shortly before the train finally started moving at 9 a.m. MT, she said her child was injured.
“And now things got worse. Another passenger was playing with Rose and picked her up by her arms. I didn’t get to him in time tell him to stop because of her sensitive elbow but I was too late. Her elbow dislocated and now an ambulance will be at the next stop for us. If a paramedic can’t pop it in, then we have to get off and go to the hospital,” she wrote.
Viau was set to get off at the next stop to seek medical help. She hasn’t posted since. QMI Agency has contacted her for comment.
The 154 passengers on board will be given travel credits, Via said.
