Anniversary of Lac Megantic disaster offers opportunity to reexamine rail safety
Posted July 6, 2019 5:37 pm.
Last Updated July 7, 2019 2:18 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CALGARY (660 NEWS) — The author of a book about the Lac Megantic rail tragedy says we don’t have to look back six years to identify fatal flaws in railway safety.
Bruce Campbell says in the aftermath of Lac Megantic operating rules were revised but still allowed trains to park without handbrakes which led to “tragic” train derailments, like one in Field, B.C. earlier this year.
“It was parked on a slope, with just air brakes applied,” Campbell said.
The February 4, 2019 derailment resulted in the death of three people.
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In the immediate aftermath, Transport Canada mandated the use of handbrakes when trains are stopped on a mountain grade after an emergency use of their air brakes.
This weekend, the 47 people killed in the Lac Megantic rail disaster on July 6, 2013 will be honoured.
Glen Pilon, a senior investigator with the Transportation Safety Board SB says they have made significant progress toward improving rail safety since the derailment and deadly explosion in Lac Megantic in 2013.
“To say that this accident could happen tomorrow–it’s always possible–it’s definitely less likely,” he says.
