Video of Ohio train, semi-truck collision misrepresented as Alberta crash
- Published on March 20, 2026 at 16:36
- 2 min read
- By AFP Canada
A train traversing a small town in Alberta province rammed into a semi-truck in March 2026, but a video spreading widely across social media shows a different crash. The misrepresented clip actually comes from a similar incident that took place in Ohio more than two years earlier.
"The truck driver tried to force his way through a closed railway crossing gate in Taber, Alberta," says a March 18, 2026 Facebook post sharing the clip.
In the footage, a truck stops with its hood parked over a railroad crossing before the driver exits the vehicle and a train barrels into the cab and wrecks it. The tracks are surrounded by houses and trees.
Similar claims that the video showed an accident in Alberta spread on Facebook and X.
Some posts sharing the footage implied that a newcomer to Canada caused the incident, invoking a narrative popular among far-right groups that blames "Indian drivers" for many of the country's transportation accidents.
Canadian media did report March 17 that a crash took place in Taber, a town in the southern part of the province.
However, footage posted to Instagram by an eyewitness to the Taber accident -- which was included in local news coverage -- shows a more rural setting and a different crash than the video circulating online (archived here).
Reverse image searches traced the other crash, near the houses and trees, to a February 2024 incident in Versailles, Ohio.
Landmarks in Google Street View imagery from the railroad crossing in Versailles match the structures in the video misrepresented on social media (archived here).
The Versailles footage appears to have been filmed from the parking lot of the Park National Bank branch, situated next to the railroad tracks (archived here and here).
Reports indicate that neither the Versailles nor the Taber incident resulted in serious injury. AFP could not locate details on the drivers involved in either accident.
Read more of AFP's reporting on misinformation in Canada here.
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