TSB Delivers Final Report on Wabamun Derailment

By 250 News

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada  says the Wambamun  Alberta CN derailment  of two years ago, was the result of defects in the rail , that the rail broke under the train sending the train  off the tracks.

When the train derailed in August of 2005,  43 cars  went off the tracks, spilling approximately 700 000 litres of Bunker C and 88 000 litres of pole treating oil were spilled, causing extensive property, environmental, and biological damage. About 20 people were evacuated from the immediate area. There were no injuries.

In it’s final report released today, the TSB  Chair  Wendy Tadros said in sports, it is widely held that the best defence is a good offence “A good offence to prevent rail failures means doing three things: ensuring more accurate rail testing, discarding fatigued rail, and ensuring that replacement rail can carry the load,"

In its report, the Board makes two recommendations with respect to testing and replacing worn rail. The Board also focuses attention on an existing recommendation from 1993 and renews its call for a reassessment of the adequacy of current equipment and procedures for main-track rail testing.  It  says the even though the track in question had been tested just three months prior to the derailment, no  defects were found at the time, indicating the equipment couldn’t detect the  problems, or the problems were too small to be detected at that time.

The president and CEO of CN, E. Hunter Harrison says the  report reflects a very thorough  investigation of the accident “ I’m pleased to say that CN, as the report notes, has already taken many steps to reduce the risk of recurrence of accidents of this nature, and will continue to do so together with government and industry experts. “

At the time of the derailment, CN made several commitments:

·          To clean up the lake to agreed to environmental standards

·          To compensate  those affected,

·          To work with all stakeholders to restore full use of the lake. 

Hunter Harrison says the railway is making progress on those commitments “We have fulfilled or continue to make substantial progress on each of these.”

Transport Canada jointly with the industry, is in the process of developing a long-term strategy to modernize the Railway Track Safety Rules. It is intended that rail testing frequency and effectiveness, as well as rail maintenance and fatigue, will be considered in the review.

Email | Print | Facebook | Twitter | Digg | Del.icio.us