Story Originally Appeared in The Detroit News
Lac-Megantic, Quebec — Insufficient brake force was applied before an oil train slammed into a town in Quebec on July 6 and killed 50 people, officials said Friday.
Donald Ross, chief investigator for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, said the insufficient brake force could be due to mechanical problems with the handbrakes, or a problem with the way someone applied them.
“Not enough brakes were applied to the train that derailed. A sufficient number of brakes needed to be applied. And the quality of brakes needs to be examined,” said Ross.
The 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 devastated the small lakeside town of 6,000 people.
A spokesman for the agency said it’s had a closer look at 25 tanker cars since gaining access to the blast site two days ago — and has taken pictures and samples.
The agency says the investigation has already resulted in two safety advisories urging a revision of the Canadian Rail Operating rule governing the securing of parked trains.
It says the rule is not specific enough because it does not spell out how many handbrakes to apply for various weights and types of cargo. It also said that the standard, so-called “push-pull test” does not always accurately show whether the brakes have been adequately applied.
The board has also advised Transport Canada that dangerous goods should not be left unattended on a main track and, also, that rail equipment be properly secured.
The transportation watchdog’s advisory comes a week after Edward Burkhardt, president and CEO of the railway’s U.S.-based parent company, Rail World Inc., blamed the train’s engineer for the accident. Burkhardt questioned whether he had properly set enough hand brakes and said the engineer had been suspended without pay.
The board said that while the investigation is expected to take quite some time, it won’t wait to send safety warnings.
Emergency officials continue to comb through the wreckage, searching for bodies amid intense heat and hazardous conditions. Authorities have recovered the remains of 42 bodies, eight bodies remain missing.
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