Him and his dog hitchhiked to Vancouver together

Edwin Hughes says it's no surprise to hear his son Michael died while trying to save his dog from being run over by a train.

"Him and that dog have been everywhere," said Hughes. "Him and his dog hitchhiked to Vancouver together."

Hughes of Pocologan, west of Saint John, was standing on the bank of Hall's Creek on Monday. The professional diver was dressed in a scuba suit, having spent the day with friends, family and diving colleagues, searching the creek for Michael's body.

Michael, 22, was knocked off a train trestle near Lewisville Road and Elmwood Drive around supper time Friday and fell into the water. His dog, a female black Labrador, was injured in the collision and found under a train car. The dog was later euthanized.

"That's not the first time he's had to grab that dog off the tracks," said Hughes. "Three or four weeks ago the dog did the same thing."

He said he came up for a visit about a week ago and warned his son to be careful, but Michael loved the dog too much to stand still while the animal was in harm's way.

"I told him nothing is worth a human life," said Hughes. "But you love something, you gotta ... He thought he could do it."

Michael had been living in Moncton since last summer and his father said he split his time between Moncton, Montreal and Halifax. On Friday evening, he was with his girlfriend of two months when the tragedy occurred.

The 20-year-old girlfriend wasn't up to speaking about the incident Monday, but her mother agreed to talk to Canadaeast News Service if her daughter's name wasn't published.

She said Michael had just landed a job at the Barnyard BBQ restaurant and they had walked over so he could drop off some information for the payroll department. They were walking back on the train bridge over Hall's Creek - the woman next to the tracks and Michael and his dog on the tracks.

"She saw the train coming from behind them," said the woman. "They didn't even hear it until it was right there."

Michael was able to get off the tracks, but the dog wasn't on a leash and wouldn't come to them.

"He called the dog, but it wouldn't move," she said. "He ran towards it and dove to try to grab the dog and bring it back ... and then the train was there."

The woman saw him get hit and fall into the water below. Despite earlier media reports, the woman wasn't hit by the train. She was standing on the side of the bridge, and the train passed without touching her.

But she was traumatized by what she saw.

"She sees it over and over in her head because she saw him in the water," said the mother.

A search team was called in to try to find the man in the water, which included Codiac RCMP members and police dogs, J Division dive team members, CN police, members of the Dieppe, Moncton and Riverview fire departments, paramedics and a Cormorant rescue helicopter from 14 Wing Greenwood in Nova Scotia. The fire departments had teams in boats Friday evening using grappling hooks to find Michael.

The search resumed Saturday morning, though the RCMP dive team leader said the current was too strong for diving.

Instead the divers waded around the creek with poles, trying to find the body under the water.

The recovery effort was called off Sunday.

Hughes and his diving colleagues began their search Sunday.

Hughes said he isn't happy with the way the official search for his son's body was conducted. He criticized the effort, saying it was called off too soon and RCMP divers were at times unnecessarily cautious about the tides.

"I've been on a lot of search and rescues and there's always a three-day search, not a day and a half and that's it," he said. "I couldn't believe it. Yesterday, the second day, they said they're done, they're going and that's when I called my own people and said 'come up and help me.' "

Hughes and his team were at Hall's Creek until late in the afternoon, using grappling hooks to drag the bottom of the river. They also took turns diving into the water in full scuba gear, but packed it in for the day at 3 p.m. when the tide became too strong.

They plan to return this morning, hopefully with a Zodiac boat if they can get their hands on one, and do the entire creek with two divers in the water. If they can finish the creek today, that will end the search.

"There's lots of stuff on bottom for a body to get caught on," said Hughes. "That's all we're hoping for, because if he went out through into the river, I doubt if he'll ever be found. If he went out through there (into the Petitcodiac River), chances of finding him are slim. Maybe someone will find him in the summer, somewhere."