Vol. 80/No. 12 March 28, 2016
(front page)
New revelations point to bosses, gov’t responsibility for Quebec rail disaster
Globe report, above, that bosses ordered workers not to use backup brakes prior to July 2013 Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, oil train disaster helps expose frame-up charges against train engineer Thomas Harding, right.
“Nearly three years after the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster, new information shows the tragic explosion … could have been avoided by a simple 10-second safety procedure that Transport Canada did not require the cost-cutting railway to use,” wrote Globe reporter Grant Robertson.
The rail bosses ordered their engineers — the one-person crew on their oil trains under special dispensation approved by the government agency — not to use the built-in automatic braking system, the Globe reported.
Over the next few days Robertson’s article was followed by a series detailing how Montreal, Maine and Atlantic bosses cut corners on safety to boost profits, while the government looked the other way.
The revelations in these articles strengthen the fight of locomotive engineer Thomas Harding and train controller Richard Labrie, members of United Steelworkers Local 1976, who face frame-up charges — 47 counts of criminal negligence causing death that could mean life in prison — as scapegoats for the disaster. Low-level operations manager Jean Demaitre faces similar charges.
“It’s hard to understand why the owners of the MMA were not charged, or the previous Minister of Transport, instead of the three who were charged,” André Blais, an activist in the Citizens and Groups Coalition for Rail Safety in Lac-Mégantic, told the Militant after seeing the Globe articles.
After parking the 72-car crude oil train seven miles from Lac-Mégantic, Harding went to bed after a 12-hour shift. As he had done many times before, he set the lead engine’s air brakes and a number of hand brakes on tanker cars.
Firefighters who responded to a small fire on the locomotive caused by inadequate company maintenance turned the engine off. This action, approved by a company agent on the scene, caused the air brakes to bleed out. The train rolled down the seven-mile grade into the city, where it derailed and exploded, killing 47 people and burning out the historic downtown area.
Robertson quotes rail industry experts who explain that the “automatic” braking system available on the tanker cars would have held the train in place after the lead locomotive’s air brakes bled out.
The decision by Montreal, Maine and Atlantic bosses to order engineers not to use the “automatic” backup system, a decision unchallenged by Transport Canada officials, was aimed at saving time and money. Operating the trains would be delayed by 15 minutes to an hour in the morning while air was pumped back into the braking system.
MMA “had a reputation as one of the most aggressive cost-cutters in the rail industry and had received unusual exemptions from Transport Canada, such as operating with a one-man crew, which allowed it to save money on labour,” reported Robertson.
Transport Canada has now put in place new regulations calling for use of the backup automatic braking system.
The official 179-page Transportation Safety Board report on the Lac-Mégantic disaster has a single paragraph on page 105 that says it “likely” would have been avoided if the backup system had been used, the Globe reports. But the safety board report focuses on blaming Harding for not setting more hand brakes.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we get more surprises” as this whole thing unravels, Thomas Walsh, Harding’s attorney, told the Militant. “The purpose of the charges from the beginning has been to distance us from the real problems and the people who caused them. Our focus should be on the individuals who made the decisions for Transport Canada and the MMA, like the decision to operate the trains with a one-man crew.”
No trial date has yet been set for Harding and Labrie. Walsh said he will present a motion asking the judge for a “stay of proceedings” — basically to dismiss the charges — at a hearing set for April 4.
“There is no material here for a criminal trial,” Walsh said, all the crown prosecutor is preparing is a “show trial.”
Meanwhile, rail bosses are “experimenting with a new place for storing excess crude: empty railcars,” the Wall Street Journal reported Feb. 28. Because of the sharp drop in oil prices over the last year, oil companies are looking to store oil rather than ship it. And railroads have an estimated 20,000 empty tank cars, some one-third of the North American fleet. So the bosses are putting cars full of volatile oil on sidings near active tracks and populated areas.
“Issues range from leaky cars to the risk of collisions and fires,” the Journal said.
Solidarity messages for the Tom Harding and Richard Labrie defense should be sent to their union, USW 1976 / Section locale 1976, 2360 De Lasalle, Suite 202, Montreal, QC H1V 2L1. Email: info@1976usw.ca. Copies should be sent to: Thomas Walsh, 165 Rue Wellington N. Suite 310, Sherbrooke, QC Canada J1H 5B9. Email: thomaspwalsh@hotmail.com
Contributions can be sent in Canada to Syndicat des Métallos, 565, boulevard Crémazie Est, bureau 5100, Montreal, QC H2M 2V8. In the U.S. send checks to Tom Harding Defense Fund, First Niagara Bank, 25 McClellan Drive, Nassau, NY 12123.
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