Death toll rising in Quebec train derailment
Posted July 9, 2013 2:23 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
LAC-MEGANTIC, Que. (NEWS1130) – Quebec police say the official death toll in the Lac-Megantic tragedy has climbed to 15.
That’s an increase of two from the previous number although, with about 35 other people still missing, residents expect the grim news to continue.
Provincial police say they have 200 officers on the site performing a criminal investigation, and treating much of the downtown core as a crime scene.
The national Transportation Safety Board is also investigating.
Transport Canada says there are no rules against leaving an unlocked, unmanned, running locomotive and its flammable cargo on a main rail line uphill from a populated centre.
Officials with the federal rail regulator say they are looking at the overall safety of the rail system after the devastation wrought on the weekend by a 72-car train carrying crude oil east through Quebec.
The downtown of Lac-Megantic was flattened when an unattended train rolled in and exploded early Saturday.
And while Transport Canada says it won’t hesitate to enforce federal rail regulations, no rules forbid a number of circumstances surrounding the Quebec disaster.
Transport Canada says it approved an application by Montreal, Maine & Atlantic, the train’s owner, to have just a single operator on the line, and that there are no rules against the practice.
Officials also say it is rare _ but not against the rules _ to leave a train unattended on a main line, and that there is no limit on how many oil-filled, single-hull tank cars a train can pull.
