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2014-08-20 02:22:09 UTC
The Canadian Press - August 19, 2014
Lac-Megantic: TSB blames railway for safety issues, Ottawa for poor oversight
LAC-MEGANTIC, Que. - The combination of a lack of government oversight and a
penny-pinching railway contributed to the deadly oil-train disaster that
devastated Lac-Megantic, says a report tabled Tuesday by Canada's
Transportation Safety Board.
The federal agency's report, the first comprehensive account of last summer's
crash to be released to the public, identified 18 key factors it says led to
the Quebec catastrophe.
Among them, the TSB pointed to roles it says were played by the Montreal, Maine
and Atlantic Railway and Transport Canada in the tanker crash, an incident that
came amid a growing pan-continental, oil-by-rail industry.
"Who was the guardian of public safety?" TSB chair Wendy Tadros said in
Lac-Megantic, where the report was unveiled.
"That is the role of government. To provide checks and balances — oversight.
And yet this booming industry, where unit trains were shipping more and more
oil across Canada and across the border, ran largely unchecked."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The agency launched its year-long investigation after the MMA train broke loose
from its parking spot uphill of Lac-Megantic in July 2013 and crashed into the
community, killing 47 people. Almost all of the 63 derailed tank cars, which
were filled with volatile crude, ruptured in the derailment and set off huge
explosions that were even spotted by satellites in space.
The report also produced two new recommendations that the TSB argues would help
prevent future runaway trains and keep a closer eye on companies like the
now-bankrupt MMA, which it criticized for having a "weak safety culture" and
"poor training" efforts for its employees.
The TSB said one of the recommendations would seek to ensure that safety
systems of railways are adequate.
Tadros said the role of the regulator has been to determine whether a company
has a safety management system. She believes Transport Canada should now
undertake audits to find out if the company is truly managing safety.
"We're saying it's not enough," said Tadros of the current arrangement, adding
that MMA did not have a functioning safety system.
The other new recommendation calls for requirements that rail operators use
additional physical methods, such as wheel chocks or modernized braking
technology, to improve train securement.
"There has to be a change in the Canadian rail industry," Tadros said.
"We have to look beyond just strict adherence to rules, because while those
rules have changed over the years, you cannot always rely on people to stick to
those rules 100-per-cent of the time.
"So, you need a backup defence and you particularly need this in high-risk
industries."
In Ottawa, Transport Minister Lisa Raitt said her department will review the
report and develop "concrete actions" to address the TSB recommendations.
"Today's report indeed does talk about higher expectations for Transport
Canada," said Raitt, who inherited the transport portfolio after the disaster.
"I share those expectations and I know the public shares those expectations, too."
In January, the TSB called on Ottawa to take urgent action to enhance tank car
safety standards, to reassess all potential routes used to transport dangerous
goods and to implement emergency response plans whenever large volumes of these
materials are shipped.
Tadros said the first three recommendations prompted swift reaction from the
industry and the federal government. For example, Ottawa pledged in April to
remove all old, rupture-prone tank cars, known as DOT-111s, off Canada's rails
in the next few years.
"But more still needs to be done," said Tadros.
The latest recommendations seek to address some of the 18 contributing factors
the TSB outlined in its report.
Three people are already facing trial for their alleged roles in the crash.
The MMA and three of its employees, including engineer Tom Harding, have each
been charged with 47 counts of criminal negligence.
The report said Harding applied an insufficient number of hand brakes on the
train — seven — and conducted an inadequate test before he left the convoy
unattended and retired to a local inn for the night.
Before he left, the TSB says Harding called MMA's rail-traffic controller to
report mechanical problems on the locomotive and thick smoke belching from its
exhaust. They agreed he could leave the engine for the night.
Later that night, a fire broke out on the locomotive. Firefighters called to
the scene shut down the locomotive, which gradually disengaged the engine's air
brakes.
An MMA track foreman with no background in locomotives met the firefighters at
the scene and, after consulting the rail-traffic controller, they left without
restarting the locomotive. Eventually, the train started rolling toward
Lac-Megantic.
Tadros, however, said the underlying causes of the accident go well beyond the
number of hand brakes applied and the engineer's actions that night.
The factors listed in the TSB report include:
— A poor repair — using an epoxy-like material — to fix an engine failure
on the lead locomotive, which led to the fire.
— Failure by MMA to provide proper training or supervision to ensure its
staff could secure a train adequately.
— The train was parked unattended on a main line, with a steep grade and was
led by a locomotive that was not in proper operating condition.
— Transport Canada failed to ensure that recurring safety problems at MMA had
been corrected.
Lac-Megantic Mayor Colette Roy Laroche said Tuesday that she hopes changes are
on the way now that it appears the derailment could have been avoided.
"We demand ... that government authorities assume their responsibilities," Roy
Laroche told a news conference Tuesday after the report's release.
"We also demand deep changes to the culture of safety at Transport Canada and
that of the rail industry. We demand that the changes are immediate."
Asked about the report, Edward Burkhardt, who was chairman of the former MMA,
said Tuesday that he was studying it. He added that he did not want to comment.
"My lawyers will be very unhappy with me if I do," Burkhardt told The Canadian
Press from his office in suburban Chicago.
"I don't have anything to say at the moment anyway because I haven't got
through most of the report."
Tom Walsh, the lawyer representing Harding, praised the report Tuesday.
"They made it very clear that this is not a hand-brake problem and it's not a
problem with just one person," he said in a telephone interview.
"It's a systemic problem that's been going on for years and years and years."
Walsh also hopes prosecutors will consider the report.
"I'd like the Crown to take a look at that report and wonder if it did the
right thing by accusing these three people," Walsh said.
"I think there should be a little bit of soul-searching at that end because we
don't even know the names of the people at Transport Canada or the people
behind the corporate veil of MMA who were responsible for creating the
conditions which allowed this tragedy to occur."
He added that Harding suffered a heart attack at the beginning of July due to
stress, but that he is recovering well.
Walsh plans to talk to his client and says the engineer knows much of what's in
the report because he had seen the provisional copy.
"He's basically in agreement with what's in the report," Walsh said of Harding.
When asked about the accused, Tadros said the TSB's mandate is to improve
transportation safety while criminal proceedings remain the responsibility of
the justice system.
The Crown has said that more charges could still be laid in the Lac-Megantic case.
Tadros said she hopes the report will help make railways safer in an era of
increased oil-by-rail shipments.
She believes the crude oil shipment boom on North American railroads took
people by surprise, including regulators, who did not introduce plans to manage
the potentially dangerous cargo.
"This accident really has brought about, and will bring about, a sea change, I
believe, in terms of the thinking of the rail industry, the shippers and the
regulators," she said.
Lac-Megantic: TSB blames railway for safety issues, Ottawa for poor oversight
LAC-MEGANTIC, Que. - The combination of a lack of government oversight and a
penny-pinching railway contributed to the deadly oil-train disaster that
devastated Lac-Megantic, says a report tabled Tuesday by Canada's
Transportation Safety Board.
The federal agency's report, the first comprehensive account of last summer's
crash to be released to the public, identified 18 key factors it says led to
the Quebec catastrophe.
Among them, the TSB pointed to roles it says were played by the Montreal, Maine
and Atlantic Railway and Transport Canada in the tanker crash, an incident that
came amid a growing pan-continental, oil-by-rail industry.
"Who was the guardian of public safety?" TSB chair Wendy Tadros said in
Lac-Megantic, where the report was unveiled.
"That is the role of government. To provide checks and balances — oversight.
And yet this booming industry, where unit trains were shipping more and more
oil across Canada and across the border, ran largely unchecked."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The agency launched its year-long investigation after the MMA train broke loose
from its parking spot uphill of Lac-Megantic in July 2013 and crashed into the
community, killing 47 people. Almost all of the 63 derailed tank cars, which
were filled with volatile crude, ruptured in the derailment and set off huge
explosions that were even spotted by satellites in space.
The report also produced two new recommendations that the TSB argues would help
prevent future runaway trains and keep a closer eye on companies like the
now-bankrupt MMA, which it criticized for having a "weak safety culture" and
"poor training" efforts for its employees.
The TSB said one of the recommendations would seek to ensure that safety
systems of railways are adequate.
Tadros said the role of the regulator has been to determine whether a company
has a safety management system. She believes Transport Canada should now
undertake audits to find out if the company is truly managing safety.
"We're saying it's not enough," said Tadros of the current arrangement, adding
that MMA did not have a functioning safety system.
The other new recommendation calls for requirements that rail operators use
additional physical methods, such as wheel chocks or modernized braking
technology, to improve train securement.
"There has to be a change in the Canadian rail industry," Tadros said.
"We have to look beyond just strict adherence to rules, because while those
rules have changed over the years, you cannot always rely on people to stick to
those rules 100-per-cent of the time.
"So, you need a backup defence and you particularly need this in high-risk
industries."
In Ottawa, Transport Minister Lisa Raitt said her department will review the
report and develop "concrete actions" to address the TSB recommendations.
"Today's report indeed does talk about higher expectations for Transport
Canada," said Raitt, who inherited the transport portfolio after the disaster.
"I share those expectations and I know the public shares those expectations, too."
In January, the TSB called on Ottawa to take urgent action to enhance tank car
safety standards, to reassess all potential routes used to transport dangerous
goods and to implement emergency response plans whenever large volumes of these
materials are shipped.
Tadros said the first three recommendations prompted swift reaction from the
industry and the federal government. For example, Ottawa pledged in April to
remove all old, rupture-prone tank cars, known as DOT-111s, off Canada's rails
in the next few years.
"But more still needs to be done," said Tadros.
The latest recommendations seek to address some of the 18 contributing factors
the TSB outlined in its report.
Three people are already facing trial for their alleged roles in the crash.
The MMA and three of its employees, including engineer Tom Harding, have each
been charged with 47 counts of criminal negligence.
The report said Harding applied an insufficient number of hand brakes on the
train — seven — and conducted an inadequate test before he left the convoy
unattended and retired to a local inn for the night.
Before he left, the TSB says Harding called MMA's rail-traffic controller to
report mechanical problems on the locomotive and thick smoke belching from its
exhaust. They agreed he could leave the engine for the night.
Later that night, a fire broke out on the locomotive. Firefighters called to
the scene shut down the locomotive, which gradually disengaged the engine's air
brakes.
An MMA track foreman with no background in locomotives met the firefighters at
the scene and, after consulting the rail-traffic controller, they left without
restarting the locomotive. Eventually, the train started rolling toward
Lac-Megantic.
Tadros, however, said the underlying causes of the accident go well beyond the
number of hand brakes applied and the engineer's actions that night.
The factors listed in the TSB report include:
— A poor repair — using an epoxy-like material — to fix an engine failure
on the lead locomotive, which led to the fire.
— Failure by MMA to provide proper training or supervision to ensure its
staff could secure a train adequately.
— The train was parked unattended on a main line, with a steep grade and was
led by a locomotive that was not in proper operating condition.
— Transport Canada failed to ensure that recurring safety problems at MMA had
been corrected.
Lac-Megantic Mayor Colette Roy Laroche said Tuesday that she hopes changes are
on the way now that it appears the derailment could have been avoided.
"We demand ... that government authorities assume their responsibilities," Roy
Laroche told a news conference Tuesday after the report's release.
"We also demand deep changes to the culture of safety at Transport Canada and
that of the rail industry. We demand that the changes are immediate."
Asked about the report, Edward Burkhardt, who was chairman of the former MMA,
said Tuesday that he was studying it. He added that he did not want to comment.
"My lawyers will be very unhappy with me if I do," Burkhardt told The Canadian
Press from his office in suburban Chicago.
"I don't have anything to say at the moment anyway because I haven't got
through most of the report."
Tom Walsh, the lawyer representing Harding, praised the report Tuesday.
"They made it very clear that this is not a hand-brake problem and it's not a
problem with just one person," he said in a telephone interview.
"It's a systemic problem that's been going on for years and years and years."
Walsh also hopes prosecutors will consider the report.
"I'd like the Crown to take a look at that report and wonder if it did the
right thing by accusing these three people," Walsh said.
"I think there should be a little bit of soul-searching at that end because we
don't even know the names of the people at Transport Canada or the people
behind the corporate veil of MMA who were responsible for creating the
conditions which allowed this tragedy to occur."
He added that Harding suffered a heart attack at the beginning of July due to
stress, but that he is recovering well.
Walsh plans to talk to his client and says the engineer knows much of what's in
the report because he had seen the provisional copy.
"He's basically in agreement with what's in the report," Walsh said of Harding.
When asked about the accused, Tadros said the TSB's mandate is to improve
transportation safety while criminal proceedings remain the responsibility of
the justice system.
The Crown has said that more charges could still be laid in the Lac-Megantic case.
Tadros said she hopes the report will help make railways safer in an era of
increased oil-by-rail shipments.
She believes the crude oil shipment boom on North American railroads took
people by surprise, including regulators, who did not introduce plans to manage
the potentially dangerous cargo.
"This accident really has brought about, and will bring about, a sea change, I
believe, in terms of the thinking of the rail industry, the shippers and the
regulators," she said.