Train derailment sparks major fire in Quebec's Eastern Townships

Lac-Mégantic rail disaster company can no longer operate in Canada

Hi. For the sake of documentation, a year later I am adding a link to an informative post by Montana in which he explains the changes to rail transportation brought about by this thread's tragedy. link to rail transportation changes post

a reply to: Montana

a reply to: gimmefootball400

This post is made in order to complete the ATS documentation on the Lac-Megantic disaster

Pre the release of the TSB report of Aug 19th, several critics voiced how the governing and overseeing bodies truly failed to take charge in supervising companies such as MMA whose lax safety culture and record was already known. That the overseers failed to act proactively and preventively in the interest of public safety is something being voiced loudly by the critics and some politicians, but since Parliament is not in session, will it all blow over b the time it reconvenes? Who exactly made the decision to reduce to one, the number of persons required on a train? Will that person be subject to a lawsuit? Damn, I sure hope so!


Part of 3rd phone call transcription freely translated by aboutface below:

RJ calling Harding at the Auberge hotel
FI: L’Auberge, bonsoir. (The INN, good evening)
RJ: Oui, bonsoir, chemins de fer MMA. Mon, mon p’tit Canadien y est-tu dans ton coin? (Yes, good evening, MMA Rail. My, my little Canuck are you there?)
FI: Euh … ben normalement y viennent me le dire quand y arrivent pis là, j’ai pas eu de nouvelle. (Um, well they usually let me know when they arrive, but till now I haven't heard from them.)
RJ: Ok. Euh, lui y serait dans la 5 ou dans 15? Dans 5, je pense hein?(Ok. Uh, him, he will be in (room number 5 or 15. In 5, I think, yes?)
FI: Euh, ben on a 2 chambres, la 5 pis ou la 15 là, y en a 2 qui rentrent? (Well we have 2 rooms, the 5 and the 15. There are two coming?)
RJ: Ben y en a just 1 qui rente, y a juste Tom qui rentre. (Well, there is only one who will show up, Tom only).
FI: Ha, mais je le sais pas … (Ha, well I don't know...)
RJ: Tu l’as pas vu? (You haven't seen him?)
FI: … dans quelle qui va. (... which room he goes to.)
RJ: Euh … essai-moi la 5 si vous plait (Please try 5 for me.)
FI: La 5? OK. (Number 5? OK.)
RJ: Merci. (Thank you.)
Beeps – phone rings

In another release the word "pelle mechanique" means steam shovel

An interesting read. Sound recordings downloadable too. Lac-Mégantic train disaster: engineer's emergency calls released

The TSB Report. Feel free to critique it.
TSB Aug 19, 2014: Press release and accident report

Just one of the critical articles.
Lac-Mégantic report lacking: Saint John region officials

a reply to: donlashway

I can not say where this info comes from, but it should not be a surprise:
Some employees of one of the company in charge of siphoning the wrecked cars discovered that they had OTHER STUFF than crude oil. The liquid was almost clear and that nasty stuff just eat the plastic hoses, like a very strong acid. So much that the company in question had samples taken to at least 3 different labs. The story goes on that nothing came back from those labs, like they never received anything... Because the records only showed crude oil.
And the guys are nervous, like they had some real threats to keep quiet...

a reply to: aboutface

I can not say where this info comes from, but it should not be a surprise:
Some employees of one of the company in charge of siphoning the wrecked cars discovered that they had OTHER STUFF than crude oil. The liquid was almost clear and that nasty stuff just eat the plastic hoses, like a very strong acid. So much that the company in question had samples taken to at least 3 different labs. The story goes on that nothing came back from those labs, like they never received anything... Because the records only showed crude oil.
And the guys are nervous, like they had some real threats to keep quiet...

a reply to: lovizall

Oh really? Were the cars they sampled marked as coming from say Dow Chemical instead of an oil company?

a reply to: aboutface

That's all what my source would say. My understanding of this is that the content of the cars was NOT as advertised on them. So much also for the flames: the guys suggested that crude oil would have burn differently than what they saw...
Now this is a conspiracy.

a reply to: lovizall

Well from the very beginning, if you look at the first videos in this thread, many people found that the explosive flames burned with an odd colour of purple. There was some questioning of what was really in the cars, but the source sender insists it was oil, and no one was able to prove otherwise. So that leaves us still in limbo about whether there was an additive mixed in with the oil, and if there was what as it? Or if something else was really in those cars, say munitions type of chemicals, would we ever know?