The runaway freight train that caused Canada’s deadliest postwar rail disaster passed four safety inspections on its final trip, records show. Details of the 2013 Lac-Mégantic wreck are cited in Québec Superior Court documents..According to Blacklock's Reporter, the repeated safety checks were documented in an Agreed Statement Of Facts submitted by lawyers for Canadian Pacific Railway, insurers and others. “The defendant Canadian Pacific has no legal responsibility for this tragic accident,” wrote Justice Martin Bureau..Forty-seven people died when a runaway Montréal, Maine & Atlantic freight carrying 48,000 barrels of oil jackknifed in a fiery derailment. It was “one of the worst railway tragedies in Canadian history,” said Superior Court. The accident occurred on a Canadian Pacific line..The freight at the time was carrying 78 cars of petroleum from North Dakota to an Irving Oil Ltd. refinery in Saint John. From its departure on June 30, 2013 the train was safety inspected in North Dakota. One tank car was removed for mechanical defects..A second inspection was conducted July 4 by Department of Transport staff in Toronto. A day later, on July 5, employees for Canadian Pacific conducted another safety inspection in Montréal, removing five tank cars for defects..A fourth inspection was completed July 5 at Farnham, QC. Minor defects were “immediately corrected on site,” the Court noted..The train was left unmanned for the night at Nantes, QC. when air brakes on the lead locomotive slowly lost pressure, sending the freight rolling 12 kilometres downhill to Lac-Mégantic. Investigators determined the freight was speeding at 105 kilometres an hour, three times the limit, when it derailed and burst into flames, razing some 40 homes and businesses while townspeople slept..The disaster bankrupted the Montréal, Maine & Atlantic Railway. The lone engineer was acquitted of criminal wrongdoing and received $237,188 in a 2019 wrongful dismissal claim..The disaster prompted numerous railway safety reforms including a ban on one-person crews freighting hazardous goods, elimination of puncture-prone tank cars and higher minimum insurance coverage by railway companies..Montréal, Maine & Atlantic Railway at the time of the wreck was carrying $25 million in liability coverage, the legal minimum under federal law. Claims against the railway were $250 million. A Lac-Mégantic compensation fund totaled $430 million..Parliament amended the Canada Transportation Act to raise minimum insurance requirements for railways shipping oil tank cars to up to $125 million or more. Oil shippers were also mandated to pay a $1.65 per tonne fee to finance a Fund For Railway Accidents Involving Designated Goods.
