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Lac-Mégantic victims sue Canadian government for allegedly failing to regulate MM&A
Very true James Wilson, didn’t think of that at the time of posting. I’d love more than anything to read the official report before pointing any finger at anyone though.
The only real failure of regulation that I can think of would be the one-man crews.
This incident took the lives of 47 people and impacted the lives of many other family and friends. I hope that time can bring some peace to their lives.
As Mr. Warner points out the Canadian system is different than the US. It may be better, it may be worse, but that isn’t as important as the fact that it is different. The Canadians will deal with this tragedy in their own way as they are entitled to do.
As for Mr Guse, I never cease to be surprised by the vitriol, ignorance, and questionable taste of most of his postings. He might well consider that his opinions might receive a better hearing if the packaging wasn’t so distasteful.
Mr Lochli asserted that the approval of one-man crews was a failure, and, by implication, that a larger crew would have prevented the disaster. Regrettably, that depends on the larger crew having done what the engineer did not do: set many more hand brakes. Had the engineer done that, no runaway.
As I understand the event, he set the (minimum) number of brakes required by MM&A’s rules. (CN rules would have required him to set many more.)
So perhaps not having set a rule on the number of handbrakes to set is causal. Perhaps the plaintiff’s attorney will make that argument.
Mr Lochli asserted that the approval of one-man crews was a failure, and, by implication, that a larger crew would have prevented the disaster. Regrettably, that depends on the larger crew having done what the engineer did not do: set many more hand brakes. Had the engineer done that, no runaway.
As I understand the event, he set the (minimum) number of brakes required by MM&A’s rules. (CN rules would have required him to set many more.)
So perhaps not having set a rule on the number of handbrakes to set is causal. Perhaps the plaintiff’s attorney will make that argument.
Canadian ambulance chasers must be very slow in more ways than one. American ambulance chasers would have been lined up along the track outside of town and drooling 3 days before the accident.
Moderation?
People are too worried about which side of the border things are on. The fact is this was corporate greed and many people died as a result. Regardless of location what happened was wrong and extraordinarily tragic. Mr. Guse’s comments are equally unwelcome on this side of the border as they are up there. I am absolutely sick of Mr. Guse’s distasteful, irrelevant, ignorant, stupid comments he always posts. He is clearly an ignorant bigot who is willing to go to any measure to post his idiotic, radical, unethical, and immoral views on people. Trains magazine does a horrible job at moderation, period. How many other magazines always have a super long corrections section on each month’s issue, often about fundamental mistakes? Not like Trains. Between that, the horrible moderation, and dick heads like Jefferey Guse, there is a reason I am no longer going to be subscribing to Trains magazine (aside from the fact that I am a college student and need to cut corners, especially when it comes to paying for crap like this). As interesting as many of the stories are on Trains Magazine, there are too many fundamental mistakes on the magazines and bad moderation on the website. If we’re all lucky Mr. Guse will drive his truck off a bridge.
Sorry for the rant but dang Jeffery Guse does not have a filter and the moderation is absolutely terrible here
What Mr. Guse said is a truth of American law. Ever wonder why there are so many lawyer jokes?
Where is the moderation here for both language and personal attacks? (Answer: There is none when the conservative is attacked. )
Please, please stop showing the same locomotive photo every time this is news!
Your an ASS jeffery gues. Just an ass. Go trowl your crap somewhere else!!!
Jeff my step daughters a lawyer and wish she could sue you for just being stupid. Go drive your peterbuilt of a cliff. Just as long as your not hauling crude. Your in the news enough already
Well said terry.
And as in the past we continue to pray for those whos lives were lost by this terrible accident. And their families and friends. RIP
The Canadian press has been savaging Burkhardt’s handling of this disaster - and rightly so.
@JIM NORTON - What Guse said that caused offense was that this lawsuit, by the surviving victims of Lac Megantic, is somehow the result of “Ambulance chasers”.
As for why Guse attracts so much criticism, which isn’t moderated out, it’s not because he’s right wing, it’s because he comes onto a rail website and continually spouts anti-rail nonsense combined with off-topic political rants.
That and he insults the surviving victims of the Lac Megantic disaster.
What is so different between USA and CAN? A few trains that carry oil or other dangerous products did derail in the USA in the past year. As for Jeffery Guse, that was not a nice thing to say. I am sure that no Canadian said such a distasteful thing after 9/11. That tragic event touched every Canadian also. Oh yeah, by the way, that train that derailed in Lac Mégantic was going to cross onto USA soil, into USA town also. It could just as easily been a community in Maine that this tragic event would have happen in. An NS train just derailed and spilled crude. Thanks God no one was hurt. Also that crude in that unit train was destined for the Saint-John, NB, refinery, would probably have processed and shipped the final product to the US market. So as long as us consumers don’t force a charge in our energy consumption habits issues like this will happen again. Exxon Valdez would be another example or the the floating platform that exploded and sank in the Golf of Mexico. What a mess. There are many other example of accidents or disasters that related to our addiction to energy. There is no problem in burning fossil fuels. It is a great portable and convenient source of energy. But we NEED to change your habits and be open other energy sources.
Mr. Guse, your comment is un-called for! You can comment to your hearts content on American issues, however 47 died several of which the bodies have not been recovered. This is a Canadian issue, we do things different that the Americans (Thank God). In the future please limit your comments to issues on your side of the line. Thank you and Good Day Sir!