In the News May 27
Workers Affirm Their Rights
Report on Fatal Train Derailment Indicates Need to End Railway Self-Regulation
On March 31, the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) issued its report on the rail tragedy in Field, BC, in which three rail workers were killed in a train derailment on February 4, 2019. On that night, a 112-car Canadian Pacific Railway Company (CP) freight train carrying grain through the Rocky Mountains derailed on a 13.5-mile section of track with a steep descending grade (average 2.2 per cent) and several sharp curves, under an ambient temperature of -28 C. Ninety-nine cars and two locomotives derailed, killing the three crew members, Dylan Paradis, Andrew Dockrell, and Daniel Waldenberger-Bulmer. They were a relief crew, having taken over from the previous crew that had to stop the train on an emergency basis because it had not been able to hold its speed at or below the 15 mph speed limit due to brake problems. Not long after the relief crew took over, the train began to creep forward, gradually accelerating uncontrolled down the steep mountain grade. The train was able to proceed over some curves as its speed increased but it was unable to negotiate a sharper curve immediately before the Kicking Horse River bridge. The train derailed, sending the head locomotive into the river while the cars crashed into the mountain.
The TSB report presents facts that clearly indicate criminal negligence on the part of CP and the federal government.
According to the report, the train’s air brake system was old and in poor condition, with the brakes releasing more and more compressed air and losing their power to brake, particularly on such a pronounced slope and under extreme cold weather. The investigation revealed that during the descent of Field Hill before the emergency stop, the train’s brake effectiveness was in the 60 to 62 per cent range. After the train had been stationary on Field Hill for approximately three hours, its brake capacity had degraded to less than 40 per cent of the maximum braking capacity.
The report also highlights CP’s lack of training of the trainmaster, with whom the relief crew was in communication once the train was stationary, after an emergency brake had been performed. The trainmaster neglected to guide the crew into applying hand brakes during that period of time, which is what a properly qualified trainmaster would have recommended under such circumstances.
The most troubling aspect of the tragedy, however, is that the so-called Safety Management System (SMS), a pillar of the deregulation of the rail industry, is once again the main factor in the occurrence of the disaster, as it has been in so many others. Transport Canada prescribes that railways must possess a safety management system which purportedly allows companies to manage risk effectively and make operations safer. But the SMS is something that is private and privileged and not open to anyone outside of the railroad companies themselves. SMS operates without railworkers and their unions having access to it. Under the hoax of integrating safety into the day-to-day activities of companies and protecting the competitiveness of the rail companies, they are left in the dark as to what it contains specifically, because it is private. Transport Canada has access to SMS through the conducting of audits which it does at whim, when it does them at all.
And so the TSB is “informing” us through its report that for years on end workers have submitted reports denouncing the safety hazards these long trains descending Field Hill in extremely cold temperature represent, and that the company simply closed the files.
The TSB writes:
“Safety hazard reports involving poorly braking unit grain trains descending Field Hill in cold winter temperatures had been submitted by train crews in January and February for a number of years. As individual notifications of this hazard were closed, new, similar reports continued to be recorded through the reporting system. Although CP’s procedure for safety hazard reporting was actively followed at the Calgary terminal, the trend analysis it required was not being done. Consequently, year after year, the reports on the poor braking of unit grain trains on Field Hill were closed, no formal risk assessment was conducted, and insufficient corrective action was taken.”
This shows how untenable the situation is in terms of the safety of rail workers and of the communities. The companies exercise the prerogative right to do as they please with the lives of the people, while government looks away and rubber stamps the activities of the rail companies. The Transportation Safety Board issues reports when tragedies occur, which it is bound to do through its legal mandate, according to which it does not enforce, assign fault or determine criminal or civil liability. The TSB’s recommendations are non-binding, since it is up to Transport Canada to introduce rules for railway operators.
Not surprisingly, CP condemned the report of the TSB as soon as it was published, opposing what it called its misrepresentation of all the aspects of the tragedy while simply repeating that it has a strong culture of health and safety. It is also striking that it says in its statement that it will be addressing what it calls the inaccuracies and misrepresentations given at the TSB news conference about the report and in the report itself directly with the TSB.
Everything is supposed to remain as secretive as possible, with no participation and say on the part of the people.
The people do not accept this state of affairs and various initiatives are being taken to force the rail companies and the government to render account for their reckless activities. The families of the workers who were killed in this tragedy and their supporters continue to demand accountability from CP Rail and the federal government and that action be taken to end railway self-regulation and ensure rail safety, so that workers and the public are protected. Due to the persistence of the families and their supporters, the RCMP launched a criminal investigation into the derailment in December 2020.
Meanwhile, the Paradis and Dockrell families have also launched two separate lawsuits alleging that the workers were not provided with a safe work environment and that CP failed to follow safety procedures.
In Quebec, more and more people are taking a stand against the rail bypass being imposed by CP and the Canadian government in response to the Lac-Mégantic tragedy in 2013 because it is unsafe. It will also be an instrument of CP`s control over regional development because the bypass goes thorough the regional municipality’s industrial park and CP will be able to decide what economic activities take place there.
People are speaking out in their own name in defence of their rights and of a human-centred economic and political system.
Workers’ Forum, posted May 27, 2022.
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