TSB finds weak safety culture within company at centre of Lac Megantic disaster
Posted Aug 19, 2014 10:45:04 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
LAC-MEGANTIC – The Transportation Safety Board of Canada says many factors contributed to the Lac-Megantic train derailment in 2013, including lax safety measures at the company that owned the runaway train.
The TSB says Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway had a weak safety culture and did not have a functioning system to manage risks.
The agency is also pointing a finger in its final report at Transport Canada, saying the department did not audit MMA often and thoroughly enough to ensure it was effectively managing the risks in its operations.
Agency officials held a news conference in Lac-Megantic this morning to release the report into the tragedy, which killed 47 people.
TSB chair Wendy Tadros says 18 factors played a role in the accident, including the fact that about one-third of the derailed tanker cars had large breaches which rapidly released vast quantities of highly volatile petroleum crude oil.
The disaster destroyed a swath of the community’s downtown and spewed millions of litres of crude oil into the environment.
