Spectacular Crash Highlights Rail Safety Week and the Need for Safety Enforcement

By TERRI THEODORE

VANCOUVER (CP) – Rail Safety Week this week saw Canada’s two main railways clean up after derailments including a crash that claimed the life of an engineer who stayed with his runaway train.

That accident and others have lead to a call to beef up the country’s Railway Safety Act to protect rail workers, the public and communities that are most vulnerable to rail accidents.

CP Rail (TSX:CP) engineer Lonnie Plasko has been called a hero for trying to control a speeding train barrelling into the B.C. Interior community of Trail on Monday.

Two of his coworkers jumped to safety and a day later, his body was dug out from the train’s wreckage.

On the same day, CN Rail (TSX:CNR) was cleaning up a derailment in central Alberta near the community of Alix.

Eight cars left the track and three locomotives tipped onto their sides, forcing the slightly injured crew members to climb out a window.

The most recent completed Transportation Safety Board statistics show a 10 per cent increase in total rail accidents in Canada from 2004 to 2005.

And compared to 2000-2004, the number of accidents went up by 18 per cent in 2005.

Dan Shewchuck, president of Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, believes some of the accidents can be blamed on longer, heavier trains.

Shewchuck, who represents CN Rail engineers and engineers, conductors and yardmen for CP Rail, said the workers believe the ponderous trains have set off derailments in the past.

“(There are) serious concerns from our members in regards to how they’re able to handle that train at high speeds. . .It makes the job a lot more difficult.”

He said in the past few years trains have grown in length from 1,800 metres to about 5,100 metres – or about five kilometres – and move up to 100 kilometres per hour.

“We seem to be having the situations develop over and over again. And something has to be done.”

Liberal MP Don Bell agrees.

He’s the vice-chairman of the transport committee that has been holding hearings on the safety of the rail industry in Canada.

“We need to have accountability, they need to have the incentive. . . of fairly severe penalties because you’re dealing with people’s lives, you’re dealing with workers’ lives, you’re dealing with potentially the safety of the public,” Bell said in a telephone interview from Ottawa.

Bell believes the Railway Safety Act needs more teeth to force rail companies to comply, noting the Aeronautics Act gives safety regulators a lot more power to act.

In February, the federal government announced its first review into the Railway Safety Act since 1994 and the report is expected later this year.

Shewchuck wants recommendations from Bell’s committee and the government review to include a type of rail watchdog.

“You can make rules, but if there’s nobody there to enforce the rules you may as well not even have rules,” he said.

“It’s kind of like the police. You have a speed limit on the highway, but if nobody abides by the speed limit you end up with a large number of traffic accidents.”

The review of the act was spurred by the disastrous CN Rail accident in 2005 where caustic soda spilled into the Cheakamus River near Squamish, B.C., 50 kilometres north of Vancouver.

A report later stated the spill into the river wiped out nearly every living creature for a 17-kilometre stretch of the 70-kilometre-long river.

On Aug. 3, 2005, a CN train derailed at a lake west of Edmonton, dumping more than 700,000 litres of bunker C fuel and a pole-treating oil into the water.

Mark Hallman, of CN Rail media relations, said the company’s accident record has improved since then, with a 26 per cent reduction in reportable main-track derailments in 2006.

“I think CN acknowledges the fact back in 2005 the company had a number of high-profile derailments,” he said.

“But we have taken significant steps to improve our corporate performance.”

In the summer of 2006, a CN Rail locomotive derailed and crashed over an embankment near Lillooet, B.C., killing two workers.

Earlier this week, CN created a new senior executive position responsible solely for safety.

Paul Miller will oversee all safety initiatives including operating practices, regulatory affairs and risk management, CN said.

Shewchuck believes the only way to save lives is to punish the rail companies financially.

“A $70,000 fine when a company makes $1.2 billion, it really doesn’t make any difference. It’s like me saying to you I’ll give you a $2 fine for speeding.”

He said the union doesn’t want to interfere with productivity, but added there’s a balance between the dollar and safety.

“We have to have a safe environment and safe railways and also be able to make a dollar, and CN is making a pretty good dollar, so is CP.”

Bell said safety is the No. 1 priority.

“These trains pass through built-up areas, residential areas. They’re carrying, sometimes, hazardous goods. They can have environmental catastrophes like the Cheakamus River.”