An employee failed to properly set the brakes of the oil tanker train that derailed and exploded in a Quebec town on Saturday, according to the head of the railway company. At least 50 people have died or are still missing after the tragedy.
"I think he did something wrong ...we think he applied some
hand brakes but the question is did he apply enough of them,"
Edward Burkhardt, president and CEO of Rail World Inc., told
reporters on Wednesday. "He said he applied 11 hand brakes, we
think that's not true. Initially we believed him, but now we
don't."
Burkhardt added that a train engineer has been suspended
without pay.
Rail World Inc. is the parent company of the Montreal, Maine
& Atlantic Railway company, which was operating the train at
the time of the accident.
Burkhardt made his comments as he visited the devastated town of
Lac-Megantic, where the train rolled down a hill and crashed. All
but one of the train’s 73 tanker cars were carrying crude oil.
The Quebec police are now presuming that all those missing in the
tragedy are dead. Earlier Wednesday, provincial police inspector
Michel Forget reduced the total number of dead and missing to 50
from 60.
"Now we are standing here with a number of 50 persons that we
are considering now as missing and most probably dead in this
tragedy," Forget told reporters. Twenty bodies have been
recovered thus far.
Quebec Premier Pauline Marois faulted the company's response in
the wake of the disaster, announcing a $60-million fund to help
victims of the catastrophe and rebuild the town.
"We have realized there are serious gaps from the railway
company from not having been there and not communicating with the
public," Marois said shortly before Burkhardt’s visit.
Canadian police said they have launched an inquiry, adding that
there have been no arrests yet. "We are conducting a criminal
investigation. We are not neglecting anything so far," Forget
said. The police inspector ruled out terrorism as a cause of the
tragedy.
Forget added that there may have been other causes for the
derailment, while other officials have raised the possibility
that the train was tampered with before the crash.
The accident forced the evacuation of 2,000 people - nearly a
third of the town’s population. Some residents started returning
home on Tuesday, although officials say part of the town remains
dangerous and is cordoned off as a crime zone. They are not sure
when the remainder of the evacuees – around 800 people - will be
allowed to return home.
"We just want to go home," a man told Reuters before being
ushered away by police. "We have rights in Quebec, no?"
The blast and heavy fire occurred shortly after 1:00am (05:00
GMT) on Saturday, when the train with five locomotives hurtled
downhill. The train derailed at Lac-Megantic, a French-speaking
town with a population of 6,000 people. At least five cars
exploded at the site, according to investigators.
Before the Quebec accident, the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic
Railway company had 34 derailments since 2003.