A tragic accident tooka father, husband, brother, son and friendfrom family and co-workers this past week.
Jan. 24 at 8:57 a.m., the lives of many changed forever when a grader came to be in the path of an east bound train.PayntonRM worker Mervin Bodnarchuck will belaid to rest in his home town of Hafford, Friday at Solonage Roman Catholic Church at 1 p.m. CST.
Mervin was the grader operator for the RM of Paynton and was performing his job when the accident happened. Paynton residents were in shock and are still trying to come to terms with the unfortunate and inexplicable crash.
Theincident sending an engine and 16 rail cars off the trackis still under investigation. Paynton Volunteer Fire Department members were first on scene and Maidstone Volunteer Fire and Rescueperformed the extrication.
Paynton FD was also on stand-by for the evening of the Jan. 24 while clean up crewsworked all night to make the area safe.Tervita Metal Recyclers were called in by CN to clean up the debris, which they did quite efficiently.
Rob Preuss from Paynton Volunteer Fire Dept was among first on scene and one of the last to leave as he also helped with the aftermath.
Clean up of the oil was a difficult job due to the cold weather, requiring steam trucks as well as vac units, dump trucks, loads of sand and saw dust, several track hoes and bobcats, generators and lights, cranes, a command centerand plenty of men and womento orchestrate this huge endeavour.
CN plansto return to Paynton in the spring in order to be sure that all of the oil has been cleaned up after the snow melts.
