3 August 2006
CP Official Promises Better Communication with Locals Following Derailment
Lytton British Columbia - An official with CP Rail promises
better communication with local communities following the derailment of a coal train earlier this week.
Ed Greenberg said the railway will act on the concerns of Mayor Chris O'Connor who has demanded there be more effort to inform
communities along the rail line of the goods that are being shipped by train. "Certainly we're concerned when the mayor of a
community that is along our track has concerns because it is something we take very seriously," Greenberg said Thursday.
"Though this incident is being led by CN, our company will continue to be involved in the investigation and is now in regular
communication with local stakeholders as it was our train that was on the CN rail."
The Canadian Pacific coal train derailed Monday on a bridge just outside Lytton, sending 12 cars into the Thompson River. Each car was
carrying up to 100 tonnes of coal. Officials have said there is probably little risk to human health, but a Fisheries spokesman has said
people shouldn't eat fish caught in the river until lab tests are completed. There is no commercial fishery in the area, but there is
recreational fishing. The river hosts several types of salmon, as well as rainbow trout and steelhead.
The derailment on the bridge is expected to be cleaned up by the weekend, but it's unclear when the coal will be cleaned from the river.
The rail on the bridge is suspected as a possible cause of the accident, a Transportation Safety Board spokesman has said.
Harry Lali, the NDP MLA for the area, said the derailment is more proof there needs to be review of rail safety in Canada. "I'm
going to continue to raise this issue until the provincial government starts doing something about it (and) by working with the federal
government to bring CN in line to start putting some more money into safety instead of cutting corners." Lali said there have been
so many train derailments over the last couple of years, it's beginning to look like a war zone.
Meanwhile, answers to what caused a deadly derailment north of Lillooet last month have been slow in coming. Dan Hollbrook, western
region manager of the Transportation Safety Board, said Thursday investigators had to return to the site a second time to retrieve more
physical evidence from a locomotive. Hollbrook said they removed a number of locomotive airbrake components and sent them to Ottawa for
further analysis.
Tom Dodd, 55, and Don Faulkner, 59, were killed and a third crewman was injured when a locomotive and lumber car went off the tracks and
plunged down steep cliffs. After the accident, CN Rail was ordered to use dynamic brakes on its locomotives. Dynamic brakes are a
supplementary braking system that help control the speed of a train when it's going downhill.
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