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Lac-Mégantic settlement funded as criminal case continues
Not sure why the fire department isn’t involved in the lawsuit. After all, they were the ones who shut down the engine - which was a contributing factor.
What is “moral damage”? That’s a new one on me.
The Fire Department took it upon them selves to shut down the engine, stopping the air to the cars holding the train from rolling, as Philip Nichols has stated!! The Fire Department should have contacted the Railroad!! The engineer & conductor did what they could to prevent this train from rolling IT IS THE FIRE DEPARTMENT THAT SHOULD BE CULPABLE!!
And parking a train on a grade with insufficient handbrakes set in case something went wrong isn’t culpability?
If the Fire Department had left the engine running there would not have been an accident!! Weather or not the hand brakes worked, the Engineer & conductor left the engine running to keep air applied to the brakes! The Fire Department apparently did not know about the air system & took it upon themselves to shut it down! The Fire Department should have noted there must be a reason the engineer & conductor left the engine running!! That is Culpable!
There was no conductor. MM&A was running a one man crew.
GILLETTE, Wyo. – A man has been charged charged with stealing a train from North Antelope Rochelle Mine and running it south 13 miles before plowing into another train.
The Gillette News Record reports that Derek Skyler Brux, 22, was charged Oct. 10 with reckless endangering; felony destruction of property; and felony destruction, obstruction, or removal of railroad track or fixtures.
Reckless endangering is a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment up to one year, a fine up to $750 or both. Felony destruction of property is punishable by imprisonment of not more than 10 years, a fine of up to $10,000 or both. Destruction, obstruction or removal of railroad track or fixtures is a felony punishable by a imprisonment of not less than one year and not more than 20 years, a fine of up to $10,000 or both.
The railroad was not responsible for this employee of Rail Link.
If there was no conductor I stand corrected, that still does not remove the Fire Departments roll in causing this honorific accident!
Philip V Nichols, Two reasons why the fire crew isn’t charged, 1) it’s Canada, and 2) they are local citizens.
Unfortunately Murphy’s law won, “Everything that possibly could go wrong…did go wrong”. The result of many human and mechanical errors.
As I understand it the fire department which is volunteer, called MM and A and inquired if they could shut the unit down down. As it was the July 1/4 long weekend MM and A sent a track crew to site. As the track crew could not contact people familiar (at MM and A) with locomotive operation they told the fire dept to shut it down and we know the rest of the story.
All the poster here who rant against the fire department know nothing about the case! The trackman of the railroad pushed the off button on the lead locomotive, and did not know how to start the next unit, and did not double check the hand brakes on the train, saying he assumed they were applied. The engineer/conductor Mr. Harding only applied hand brakes which only tightened 24 brake shoes against the wheels because the locomotive hand brakes only applies two shoes per locomotive. If Mr. Harding applied hand brakes to 10% plus two cars, he should have applied brakes on three more cars which would have been another 24 shoes against the wheels, an 100% improvement. Then Mr. Harding failed to release the engine brakes when he tested his hand brakes so his test was a total a worthless failure. The management Train Master was on vacation and the railroad failed to have a manager on the scene. Mr. Harding in the hotel called and asked to return to the engines, but the office told him to stay and get his rest, a bad call. The company rules permitting the counting of an engine as one unit of 10% plus two units is a leading cause of the deaths because the locomotives hand brakes do not apply all the brake shoes such as a car hand brake applying 8 shoes. The fire department did what they were told over a phone by the railroad office which were bad insturctions. The fire deptment is off the hook, so all you prior poster have egg on your face, so wait for the trial.
24 brake shoes tight against any wheels will not hold a train that size on that grade. If he only applied hand brakes to the 10% (7 cars) plus two, he would have applied 56 brake shoes, and that would hold any train.
Tell me if I’m wrong, but I remember reading reports of a corporate culture of lax safety. That it was not unusual for engineers to shut down a train with an insufficient number of hand brakes applied. There had to be supervisors who knew that, and the question is, how far up the hierarchy that laxness went.
Secondly, I remember reading that the cargo was much more volatile and flammable than the kind of crude oil that those cars were labeled for. Who was responsible for that?
And as a follow up as I said before, there was a second person who knew what was being done at Nantic when trains were stopped there. Every train has to be picked up by another crewmen or man and they all knew how many hand brakes are being released. All these releiving crew members, except one, failed to try to stop the failure on not applying sufficient hand brakes. Calls of notice to the office were ignored and the warning was not acted upon. All those other trainmen on that railroad should have guilt they failed to stop Mr. Harding lazy work methods that had been happening for over a year in the same manner. A second crew member is no assurance that an improper work function will not continue, better management supervision is the time honored system.
W.Cook-you are insane. There is TEN TIMES too much management on railroads. The fault should lay in the SOLELY in the laps of the person who shut the engine down and whoever implemented “1 man crews”.PERIOD.END .STOP.
A locomotive is a complete piece of equipment used for a for a purpose ( move freight cars ), controlled by an operated ( engineer ) with safety features ( emergency brakes-hand breaks-fuel cutoff switch ).
Failure to operate ( engineer ) the locomotive as required by the AAR rules using all safety features provided is flat out the responsibility of the ENGINEER. Worked 12 hours and dead tired is no excuse for not following the mandated rules in this incident.
The fire crew would have stayed on the scene till the fire was out, which could result in the engine not running.
As for better management supervision, I don’t buy that.
Employees were hired to do a job.
All of the job.
All of the time.
They want to get paid for all their work.
MICHAEL R DENYKO- once more in English please.