TSB calls for immediate changes after Quebec train disaster
Posted July 19, 2013 8:27 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
LAC-MEGANTIC, QC (NEWS1130) – The Transportation Safety Board is calling for immediate changes in rail policy in the wake of the Lac-Megantic catastrophe.
The agency isn’t waiting for the results of its just-begun, multi-month investigation to make two recommendations.
It has sent Transport Canada safety advisories, asking that dangerous goods not be left unattended on a main track, and that rail equipment be properly secured.
A TSB official has told a news conference in Lac-Megantic that it’s clear that insufficient brake force was applied before a train went slamming into the town on July 6.
He says there could be different reasons for that; it could be mechanical problems with the handbrakes, or a problem with the way someone applied them.
Almost two weeks ago, an unmanned train belonging to the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic railway carrying 72 cars of crude oil slammed into the heart of Lac-Megantic, setting off massive explosions that are believed to have killed as many as 50 people.
