The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has also confirmed it is sending an investigator to the site of the Canadian Pacific Railway derailment to gather information and assess the occurrence.
It happened near Saint-Constant late Monday night and is having an impact on commuter rail service this morning and has one CP Rail employee counting his lucky stars.
Service on the Candiac train line is running this morning, but currently faces as much as a 50 minute delay and the Sainte-Catherine station is not in use this morning.
Saint-Constant / Sainte-Catherine Fire Chief Alexandre Tremblay told CJAD 800 that a CP Rail crew was working next to the tracks at the time of the derailment and that one of the workers narrowly missed being seriously hurt or killed.
The derailment occurred around 11:30pm by the Saint-Constant train station at Saint Pierre St. and it is currently unclear why five freight train's cars went off the tracks - with two of them flipping onto their sides.
Early reports suggested a "group of road workers" in the area had to jump out of the way of the derailing train and one of them is among the luckiest people on the South Shore.
"A guy working for the CP company was close by the train and he actually saw the wagon (derail)," said Tremblay. "The information that I've got right now is that he doesn't have any real injuries to his leg. He just has to go to the hospital for check, but he is okay."
Tremblay said that the unidentified man jumped to safety as the train derailed and fortunately for him he landed in a ditch next to the tracks. The train car tipped over onto the man, but the uneven terrain he was laying on allowed firefighters to easily remove him.
In a short emailed statement, CP representative Jeremy Berry confirmed "there were no dangerous goods involved in the incident and no risk to the public." Four of the derailed cars were carrying rolled steel and the fifth was loaded with lumber.
In the meantime, Saint-Pierre St. was closed at the tracks for an indefinite period.
La gare Saint-Constant sera finalement accessible à la clientèle ce matin. Seulement la gare Sainte-Catherine est fermée pour une durée indéterminée. Nous invitons les clients à se déplacer vers d'autres gares pour effectuer leur embarquement. https://t.co/Q3mL9XIHOW
— Exo - Réseau de transport métropolitain (@allo_exo) July 10, 2018
The Fire Chief said the CP crew was working at the time of the derailment, but added he doesn't know what they were working on.
Tremblay noted there are two sets of tracks in this area and that one of them is okay. But speculated the second set of tracks may require some work following the incident. CJAD 800 has asked CP Rail for an interview to get more information about the derailment and to see what role, if any, the CP work crew played in the incident. Berry said "an investigation into the incident is ongoing."
* With files from CJAD 800's Shawn Dearn and James Foster