Mayor and Council Ask CN for Answers

By 250 News

Prince George Mayor, Colin Kinsley, has sent a letter to CN’s Senior Vice President, Western Region, asking for some assurances that the CN crash and derailment of August 4^th won’t be repeated.  "I have been speaking at length  to  them on the phone" says the Mayor.  "We want them to tell us they are taking every possible precaution to make certain our city is safe,  our  people are safe, our water supply is safe."

In the letter to Jim Vena, the Mayor wrote “It is important to acknowledge the response to the derailment was timely and we were most fortunate that the containment of the resulting spill and fire was effective. The results could have been much worse if the tank car had rolled over, or if more hazardous products had been involved.”

The Mayor asks for a senior CN official  to present to Council a plan on the immediate measures CN proposes to “mitigate the potential for future events of this nature and to address risks that hazardous cargo may pose for our community and its citizens.”

CN has pegged the collision and derailment on "human error."  The Transportation Safety Board meantime is  doing its own investigation into the incident.  The Mayor says human error or not,  he wants assurances "We have to know what else can be done to ensure this kind of thing doesn't happen again, 'cause human  error can  happen at any time,  whether its more training, different training,who knows what the answer is to that, but I think this an opportune time for a Senior  level person with CN to explain to us what they are going to do to reduce the possibility of human error."

Councilor Brian Skakun had submitted a notice of motion asking for such a letter, but he asked that it be sent not only to CN representatives   but to senior governments as well. Skakun’s notice also asked for a post incident review to see how the matter had been handled in an effort to possibly improve measures. The letter mailed out  by the Mayor  had copies sent to CN’s two communications representatives for the western operations. 

The Transportation Safety Board  is conducting a Class 3 investigation on the incident which  involved the collision of two trains,  a derailment, and a fire that  burned for nearly 12 hours as a tanker filled with gasoline  burned.

Transport Canada has already issued 5 orders to CN  which the railway says have already been implemented.

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