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Probe: MMA failed to report 22 incidents before Quebec derailment
Small derails and short runaways in a yard are actually more common that you might think in very cold weather where air lines freeze up. I am sure there was probably some in Maine too. Its part of the work, lots of switches and crossing tracks in yards, and some sidings…
This report really is no big deal and is just throwing gas on a media fire. I Know the runaways were in winter, and probably half the small derails were too, and most all was in yards…This is Non news and other Northern railways have similar records… There is a Damage threshold to REPORT these. Obviously the writer forgot about that…
If you have a run of “small” incidents, that is usually leading up to something really bad. Sadly, that seems to be what happened here.
There is a safety training maxim that states:
“Of every 300 incidents there will be 29 minor accidents and 1 very serious accident”.
That seems to hold true here, too.
This reminds me of the sensationalism of reporting on the L&N in the late 1970s. Numerous nights the Nashville TV news would open with reporting 100s of violations. All the while the L&N kept running just fine.
Well said bruce. But it only takes one BIG incident to really bring a railroad into the viewfinder of the media. When this accident first happened I posted that if there had been a two man crew aboard this train this probably would not have happened, and I was crucified by some of the other posters for saying such a thing. Looks like the FRA agreed with me with the proposed new staffing levels for hazmat trains and all passenger trains.
Typical day on the RR. They should have had another 290 or so incidents before the big one occurred according to almighty and beknighted accident pyramid god.
The incidents were Not reportable. That’s why this is Non news. 2 crew leaving that same train for the night in Quebec would have had same result. The Fire dept. shut the brakes off on the train, air brakes…Most people don’t know that…
Isn’t the point they had a lot of reportable incidents they did not report?
Work in any railyard for any length of time and you will witness these things happen. I’ve been in a Class 1 yard for almost 15 years and IT DOES HAPPEN from time to time, fortunatly its rather rare. We get written up and time off whenever we run thru a switch or derail a car but the local media doesn’t have it on the News at 11! There is a threshold and these ‘incidents’ didn’t make the grade. Its part of the job and the work. We do not LIVE IN A PERFECT WORLD. Figure that out and we’ll get along just fine.
Interesting discussion…However, what would have prevented this tragedy involving a runaway unmanned train in Lac-Megantic? The exercise should involve looking backwards from what actually happened!
Will this lead to the return of firemen/firewomen on passenger trains?
@BRUCE BELL - Most people do know that the Fire Department shut down the locomotive, inadvertently shutting down the airbrakes, it’s just not an issue for two reasons:
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It’s standard procedure. You switch off engines to stop fuel from circulating, feeding the fire. There is nothing the FD could have done instead. If the Fire Department hadn’t turned off the engine, they wouldn’t have been able to put out the fire. And if the fire hadn’t been put out, the locomotive - and hence the airbrakes - would have been disabled anyway!
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It shouldn’t have been an issue. The handbrakes should have been enough to keep the locomotive from moving, and a professional railroad with an actual safety culture would have also not parked a train on a grade on the mainline with no derailer.
“The Fire Department did it!” was Burkhardt’s first comment on the matter, albeit I don’t think he intended it to come out the way it did. So no it’s not some big secret. It’s just irrelevant.
Not all fire departments know how to operate trains. Deregulation from the governments and self regulation of companies will be the end of all of us.
I agree that most of these incidents sound minor and I tell all of my non-railroading friends that derailments are like getting a flat tire on your car, they happen. What still bothers me about this whole situation is the fact that every railroad that I know of has a minimum handbrake policy that accounts for grade, tonnage and number of cars in a train. Most also call for a release of airbrakes to determine that a sufficient number of handbrakes have been applied to prevent movement in case of an accidental release (like a fire department shutting an engine down). I think, as I have from the beginning, that this is a result of a freak series of events that would have been prevented had a second crew member been on the train at the time. In the mean time the rest of the railroad industry is beset with Emergency Orders, new policies and a load of unnecessary and pointless malarkey.
Another indication that Burkhardt’s pretend railroad empire, grandly named ‘RAIL WORLD’ in some silly mirror-gazing frenzy, is totally incapable of safely and efficiently running a railroad carrier in the 21st Century.
His rail ventures in the US should be shut down, the assets seized to satisfy the lines of creditors that are still waiting for payment since last July, and Burkhardt’s own bank account emptied - as well as all the accounts his wife or offspring may have opened with their ill-gotten gains from his schemes to pretend to care about running a safe transportation company.
‘Profits First - Safety Last!’ - The Burkhardt family motto.