Corporate Profits Trumped Public Safety in Oil Train Derailment

by onepercenttakers · August 22, 2014

The Lac Mégantic oil train derailment that killed 47 people and nearly destroyed a small town was caused by a series of government and industry failures, according to an investigation released Tuesday. This "accident waiting to happen," observers note, is another searing indictment of the "profit before public safety" directive of the fossil fuel industry and its government backers. Citing 18 separate factors that contributed to the July 7th, 2013 disaster, the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) of Canada concluded that the now-defunct Maine, Montreal & Atlantic (MMA) Railway "was a company with a weak safety culture," which government regulators Transport Canada had repeatedly failed to audit and address. "This report is a searing indictment of Transport Canada’s failure to protect the public from a company that they knew was cutting corners on safety despite the fact it that was carrying increasing amounts of hazardous cargo," Keith Stewart, Greenpeace Canada’s Climate and Energy Campaign coordinator, said in a statement following the report's release. "This lax approach to safety has all owed the unsafe transport of oil-by-rail to continue to grow even after the Lac Mégantic disaster. It is time for the federal government to finally put community safety ahead of oil and rail company profits or we will see more tragedies."
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The Lac Mégantic oil train derailment that killed 47 people and nearly destroyed a small town was caused by a series of government and industry failures, according to an investigation released Tuesday. This “accident waiting to happen,” observers note, is another searing indictment of the “profit before public safety” directive of the fossil fuel industry and its government backers. Citing 18 separate factors that contributed to the July 7th, 2013 disaster, the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) of Canada concluded that the now-defunct Maine, Montreal & Atlantic (MMA) Railway “was a company with a weak safety culture,” which government regulators Transport Canada had repeatedly failed to audit and address. “This report is a searing indictment of Transport Canada’s failure to protect the public from a company that they knew was cutting corners on safety despite the fact it that was carrying increasing amounts of hazardous cargo,” Keith Stewart, Greenpeace Canada’s Climate and Energy Campaign coordinator, said in a statement following the report’s release. “This lax approach to safety has all owed the unsafe transport of oil-by-rail to continue to grow even after the Lac Mégantic disaster. It is time for the federal government to finally put community safety ahead of oil and rail company profits or we will see more tragedies.”