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Lac Mégantic Rail Disaster

21K views 179 replies 17 participants last post by  krs 
#1 ·
Surprised this hasn't come up as a thread... two days' old now...

Lac-Mégantic's tragedy is a most unnatural disaster



On a beautiful summer night, we are to believe, 73 driverless cars of the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway somehow came broke loose on a siding near Nantes, 12 kilometres to the west of town, and began rolling quietly, unnoticed, down the hilly incline, gathering speed in their “inertia’’ — no power other than gravity — aiming right at the heart of an unsuspecting community at the bottom.

The brakes and safety system were apparently functional, nothing to worry about, when the engineer had departed just before midnight for a comfortable bed at a local hotel. A replacement was slated to come aboard later during the night.

If there were anti-derail safety devices on the track — designed to guide cars off the rails at selected spots, as protection against collisions — they clearly did not work. Heedless, that bulk of metal and — most ruinously, crude oil tankers — escalated towards Lac-Megantic, hurtling into the downtown district, its locomotive breaking free at some point before the crash, a mere 9 metres from the Musi-Café, a popular and Saturday-night crowded bar.

Those fortunate to escape the resulting inferno fled on foot, some even jumping into boats that roared off into the waters offshore, beyond the explosions and flames and eye-singing heat. The sky, said residents, turned from black to vivid orange and red — the colours of warning-label danger, still so hellfire hot late Sunday afternoon that firefighters who’d rushed to the scene from as far away as Sherbrooke and Maine, across the border, could approach no closer than 150 metres distant of two fuel cars that remained burning.

The guts of Lac-Megantic have been spilled, reduced to ashes. All those suburban commercial totems — the Dollarama store, the Metro supermarket — businesses and restaurants razed, on the scorched earth of a 5-square-kilometre central district. Worst of all, besides the five bodies that had been recovered by last night, upwards of 40 people still missing, perhaps “vaporized’’ in the fireball — many of them, it seems, Musi-Café patrons who never saw death coming.

If a loved one in Lac-Megantic hasn’t come home yet, they may never be coming home.

(Toronto Star)

Related: Devastated Lac-Mégantic waits for word of its missing - Montreal - CBC News



 
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#106 ·
The MMA employee(s) still remained seized with the responsibility to secure the train. The fire department (volunteer) extinguished the fire, turned over the situation of securing of the MMA train on MMA rails back over to the MMA employees.
 
#107 ·
The MMA statement attempting to shift the blame falls into the CYA category. As any insurance adjuster will tell you: Never admit blame, especially if you have taken out a sizeable chunk of a small town and killed a bunch of people.
 
#108 ·
As far as I remember watching this unfold is that the only MMA person who tried to shift blame was Edward Burkhardt who suggested that the hand brakes were not fully set as the engineer had stated.
Don't know if TSB ever confirmed if the hand brakes were set and how many.

But if you read various reports - the engineer said he set the hand brakes on the five locos and 10 cars, the MMA chairman said their own regulations state it should have been 11 cars, not that this would make any difference because of the range of slopes the regulation covers.
What is a bit of an eye opener is this article which gives a few examples of how many hand brakes were set in other 'run-a-awy' situations vs the number that should have been set and the minimum number required.
Lac Megantic explosion: Standards vary for number of hand brakes required in Canada | Toronto Star
 
#109 ·
On the topic of crude oil, small towns, and train disasters....

North Dakota town 'dodged a bullet' in crude explosion, says mayor



A southeastern North Dakota town narrowly escaped tragedy when a train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded nearby, the mayor said Tuesday, calling for changes in how the fuel is transported across the U.S.

No one was hurt in Monday's derailment of the mile-long train that sent a great fireball and plumes of black smoke skyward about a mile from the small town of Casselton. The fire had been so intense as darkness fell that investigators couldn't get close enough to count the number of burning cars. The National Transportation Safety Board launched an investigation.

Most residents heeded a recommendation to evacuate their homes as strong winds blew potentially hazardous, acrid smoke toward the town overnight, Mayor Ed McConnell said early Tuesday. Black soot coated parts of Casselton.
(NBC News)
 
#113 ·
Maybe they were pulling our legs but the drivers of the tour busses that visited where I worked would say they had to run their engines to get some gauge to at least some determined point on the gauge so that the brakes would work and release so that they could drive away.

Are large public tour busses different with their air brakes - I don't know???

Regardless of design and operation, they don't seem to live up to the "fail safe" description. At least with runaway trains. :(
 
#114 ·
Yes, you have to charge the system tanks (1 primary and 1 secondary) to 120psi but after that you may shut the engine off and release the brakes. We had a guy at work who at the beginning of his shift went to his truck and stared it up on a cold day and walked away. The previous driver didn't set his brakes (button on the dash) and drained his tanks as required by company policy (drain to release moisture in freezing weather) this also locks the brakes as truck brakes need air to release. As the air pressure filled the tanks the brakes released and the truck rolled into our building. Management added wheel chocks to the SOP. :D
 
#115 ·
The description of the fail safe design indicates it should hold for some time after the locomotive engine was shut-off with individual airtanks applying the brakes to each car. However at some point those tanks would lose some pressure releasing the brakes.

The big question here is why the onsite RR rep did not know enough to fire up one of the other four locomotives and more specifically after the fire, when he presumably contacted a supervisor, he was not told of the need to have a locomotive running.

Obviously as stingy as corporations are these days, the engineer would not have left any of the locomotives running at all, unless there was a very good reason to do just that.
 
#116 ·
This discussion of air brake fail safe reminds me of the age old question; who is smarter fools or engineers? Engineers attempt to make products fool proof yet the fools always seem to win.
 
#117 ·
It seems that with the so called "fail safe" air brakes, vacuum or pressure, not even the engineers or designers got it right.

And not even Bendix with all their years of experience at least in North America seems to have done so and especially when it comes to what they call a misnamed "emergency brake". The emergency part seems to be accurate however when they fail.

Heck, if they don't want a wheel to rotate when parked, why haven't they designed something like a big steel rod that goes through a hole in the wheel or some such. Pretty hard to get such an arrangement to allow a wheel to rotate I would think.
 
#118 ·
....and yet again....

CN train carrying crude oil derailed, on fire near Wapske


(Photos via Haligonia.ca)

A CN freight train carrying dangerous goods has derailed and caught fire in northwest New Brunswick, not far from the U.S. border.

Jim Feeny, director of public and government affairs for CN Rail, said the train derailment happened just after 7 p.m. AT about five kilometres outside of Plaster Rock in Wapske, N.B. He said the train was coming from central Canada and was heading to Moncton.

He said the train was carrying dangerous goods.

“The number of derailed cars has not yet been confirmed. We do know that there are dangerous goods cars on the train and that they are in the derailment area. These include cars carrying LPG — which is propane — and crude oil but we cannot confirm if those cars are actually derailed at this point. We know they’re in the immediate area,” said Feeny.

He also confirmed there was a fire at the site, but said it's unclear what is fuelling the fire.


(CBC)
 
#123 ·
Those that oppose pipe lines, also oppose the oil sands. So any mishap with rail or truck works toward their agenda.
 
#124 ·
this is beginning to get insane. one suggests a method of delivery that has clearly shown plenty of accidents as rail has, except with pipelines they want to ramp up oil sands production massively.

Then the other says people are hypocrites if you don't support pipelines and blah blah, now, it's a conspiracy or something.

It just gets nuttier by the day.
 
#128 ·
It is what it is kps. If all these train accidents and deaths are 'working for their agenda' that sounds pretty conspiratorial to me. Personally, I think it's total BS, as opposition to the oil sands don't like either option.

For pipelines, they have been planned -because- they want to ramp production. That's been talked about openly for some time now.

I don't think they're going to be sitting around going, well gee! We have all these pipelines now. Now what?? Maybe we should make more oil and, wait!! I have a good idea, let's get big super tankers to take it to China!

It's already planned my friend.
 
#129 ·
It is what it is kps. If all these train accidents and deaths are 'working for their agenda' that sounds pretty conspiratorial to me. Personally, I think it's total BS, as opposition to the oil sands don't like either option.

I don't think they're going to be sitting around going, well gee! We have all these pipelines now. Now what?? Maybe we should make more oil and, wait!! I have a good idea, let's get big super tankers to take it to China!

It's already planned my friend.
So, perceived public safety is a conspiracy? Diverting of haz mat on rail tankers through towns is a conspiracy? Environmental risks of pipelines is a conspiracy? All of which plays into the hands of those wanting to eliminate the oil sands and also create FUD in the rest of us.

For pipelines, they have been planned -because- they want to ramp production. That's been talked about openly for some time now.
Stating the obvious again groove? What's wrong with increasing production while saving on transportation of the commodity while also making an investment in the local economy (i.e. Jobs)?
 
#132 ·
Personally my biggest argument with the oil sands is exporting the raw product, which so far seems to include incorporating a highly flammable solvent. I would much prefer at a portion of the refining to be done on sight, although that would leave some rather ugly waste to be disposed of.

It would certainly help create additional Alberta jobs and help keep capital in Canada/Alberta.
 
#134 ·
#135 ·
Just before Lac-Mégantic, railways sought to reduce inspections

Canada’s major freight rail carriers attempted to reduce safety inspections on rail cars carrying dangerous goods exactly a month before the Lac-Mégantic, Que., tragedy, CBC News has learned.

The Railway Association of Canada, whose major members include CN and CP Rail, asked the federal transport minister at the time, on June 7, 2013, to repeal rules that require certified rail car inspectors to do detailed examinations of brakes, axles, wheels and car components before they are loaded.

The RAC argued that the examinations done at designated yards were “redundant” and “overlay,” given that train conductors and engineers walk the length of their trains, and rail lines now are equipped with “wayside inspection detectors, wheel impact detectors and cold wheel set detectors.”


(CBC)
 
#136 ·
MM&A railway had repeated brake violations on the books

A decade before the Lac-Mégantic tragedy, Transport Canada was aware of company's non-compliance

Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway Ltd. (MM&A) had been the subject of repeated infraction notices for violations of the rules surrounding the securing of trains for years before the tragedy in Lac-Mégantic, but Transport Canada never imposed any sanctions on the company.

Those violations, documented in Transport Canada files obtained by Radio-Canada's investigative program, Enquête, were noted several times in 2004 and 2009, and again in 2011 and 2012.

Just what happened the night in early July when an MM&A train rolled down an incline, derailed and exploded in the core of Lac-Mégantic, killing 47 people, is still under investigation.

But the use of the handbrakes and how the train was secured are at the heart of the inquiry, and have been since early days.

* * *

In the days following the tragedy, Edward Burkhardt, chairman of MM&A, suspended the locomotive engineer and alleged the driver failed to apply enough handbrakes when he left his train unattended on the main track and headed into Lac-Mégantic to sleep.

“Blaming the conductor, that’s the easiest thing to do,” said Jacques Vandersleyen, a consultant and railway industry expert.

“Those primarily responsible for good management, good ethics and corporate culture are the leaders.”

Vandersleyen said the repeated violations on the books for MM&A show a systemic safety problem within in the company.

He also said Transport Canada failed in its duty by not imposing punitive measures against MM&A.


(CBC)
 
#137 ·
Lac Megantic Charges: Three Employees Face Negligence Claims After Quebec Runaway Oil Train Disaster



Three employees and the railway company involved in last summer's massive explosion of a runaway oil train that incinerated much of a small town in Quebec, killing 47 people, will face criminal negligence charges, provincial prosecutors announced late Monday.

The charges come about 10 months after more than 60 of the tankers carrying oil from North Dakota came loose in the middle of the night, sped downhill for nearly seven miles (11 kilometres) and derailed in the town of Lac-Megantic in eastern Quebec. At least five of the tankers exploded, levelling about 30 buildings, including a popular bar that was filled with revelers last July 6.

The Quebec provincial prosecutor's office said 47 counts of criminal negligence have been filed against engineer Thomas Harding, manager of train operations Jean Demaitre, and Richard Labrie, who was in charge of rail circulation, as well as the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway Ltd., the defunct railway at the heart of the disaster. The charges represent one count for each person killed. They are the first criminal charges brought. Criminal negligence that causes death can result in a jail sentence of up to life imprisonment in Canada.


(HuffPo)
 
#138 ·
Lac-Mégantic rail disaster: $200M proposed settlement reached

Victims of the 2013 rail disaster in Lac-Mégantic, Que., are one step closer to reaching a major financial settlement with the railway that was at the heart of the deadly tragedy.

A U.S. lawyer who worked on the wrongful-death lawsuits said Friday that, if the compensation package is approved, $200 million will be distributed in settlement funds to families of those who died as well as other parties involved in the legal battle.

Peter Flowers told The Canadian Press he expects the money to start flowing this summer, although the compensation package must still be approved by courts on both sides of the border.

* * *​

"This is the first step in implementing the settlement fund," said Robert Keach, court-appointed trustee in the defunct railroad's bankruptcy case in Maine.

Keach said he's received commitments of about $200 million but hopes it will grow to $500 million. Several of the largest corporations with potential legal liability have not yet agreed to participate, he said.

Three other companies — World Fuel Services, Canadian Pacific Railway and Irving Oil — have yet to contribute.

"We will turn over every stone on earth before we give up on them and intend on pursuing them in Illinois and any other state to ensure they're brought to justice and held responsible for this disaster," Flowers said.


(CBC)
 
#139 ·
Lac Megantic Rail Disaster Victim Settlement Fund Approval Delayed By Judge

Final approval of a $338 million US settlement for victims of the 2013 train derailment in Lac-Megantic, Que., has been delayed.

The delay is to provide time for the only party that's opposed to the fund to either join in the settlement or negotiate terms to withdraw its objection.

A U.S. bankruptcy judge on Thursday ordered the parties to reconvene Oct. 5, and the U.S. bankruptcy trustee is confident the settlement will be confirmed.

The settlement was the issue of negotiations with about two dozen companies.

The only party with potential liability that declined to participate is Canadian Pacific, which contends it wasn't treated fairly under the deal.

At a court hearing in Canada earlier this year, a lawyer for CP said the disaster did not involve the company's tracks, rail cars, products or employees.

Forty-seven people died in Lac Megantic, Quebec, when the runaway train with 72 oil tankers derailed on July 6, 2013.

A bankruptcy judge in Maine is set to rule on a $338 million US settlement fund for victims of the 2013 train derailment in Lac-Megantic, Que., that claimed 47 lives.

The U.S. bankruptcy trustee wants the judge to approve the plan today so money can begin flowing to those who were harmed by the disaster.

But several parties — including Canadian Pacific — are urging the judge to reject the deal.​

(HuffPo)
 
#140 ·
Imagine how much smaller this disaster would have been if the 72 tankers worth of oil had been in a pipeline instead of on rails.
 
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