Lac-MÃ©gantic: TSB report urges thorough safety audits

The Transportation Safety Board's report into the deadly train derailment in Lac-Mégantic, Que., in 2013 calls for additional safety measures to prevent runaway trains, as well as more thorough audits of safety management systems.

The report left no doubt about problems with the train's owner — Montreal, Maine and Atlantic (MMA).

"The TSB found MMA was a company with a weak safety culture that did not have a functioning safety management system to manage risks," the agency said in a release.

The report says railway rules require hand brakes alone to be capable of holding a train, but air brakes were left on during the hand brake test the night of the disaster.

"Without enough force from hand brakes, the train began rolling forward downhill toward Lac-Mégantic, just over seven miles [about 11 km] away."

The core of Lac-Mégantic, Que., was devastated by the derailment and tanker car explosions in 2013. (CBC)

Among the problems identified at MMA were gaps in training, employee monitoring and maintenance practices.

The report also found that Transport Canada did not audit MMA often and thoroughly enough to ensure safety procedures were being followed.

In all, the TSB found 18 factors that contributed to the accident.

"Take any one of them out of the equation, and this accident might have not happened," said Jean Laporte, TSB chief operating officer.

MMA, however, did not effectively manage risk and it cut corners when it came to safety, the TSB reports.

While MMA had certain safety processes in place and had developed a safety management system in 2002,
the company did not begin implementing it until 2010.

That program, however, did little to identify hazards and mitigate risks, the report says.

MMA also did not consistently comply with a Transport Canada requirement that has each railway determine the methods for training and requalification of employees every three years.

But some residents of Lac-Mégantic say they're not sure the answers in the report will satisfy people in the community who are still grieving, many of whom want to see Transport Canada found responsible.

Marilaine Savard, who helped create a Lac-Mégantic group for citizens, said there's a sense that the government is partly to blame for the disaster.

"We feel that these people are never going to admit their share of responsibility," she said.

The aim of the TSB report is not to assign blame for the disaster. The agency's mandate is to look for ways to prevent a similar accident.

In January, the TSB made urgent recommendations to revise the way materials such as crude oil are carried by rail, including tougher standards for the DOT-111 rail cars — the tankers involved in the Lac-Mégantic derailment— that are widely used in the oil-by-rail industry.

The recommendations were announced in response to "three critical weaknesses" the agency said it discovered in the rail system during its investigation.

Transport Canada has already made changes based on the TSB findings, including a new requirement that emergency response plans be prepared for all crude oil, gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel, and ethanol rail transportation.

The TSB report is expected to focus on possible human error, the tankers that were transporting the volatile crude oil and the brake system used on the train.

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