Engineer blamed in Quebec rail disaster

• Midnight: Firefighters and an employee of the train operator, Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, arrive on the scene. Firefighters douse the blaze and the train engine is shut down. Canada's Transportation Safety Board at a news conference on Tuesday did not say who shut down the engine or who was last inside the train, key points because the train operator says the shutdown may have led to the release of the train's air brakes. On Wednesday, the railway company chief says an employee failed to properly set the train brakes.

• 12:56 a.m. Saturday, July 6: After firefighters depart, the train starts to move. It begins rolling down a slope away from Nantes and toward Lac-Megantic. The train picks up considerable speed.

• 1:15 a.m.: The first explosion is reported as the train derails in Lac-Megantic. The locomotive detaches and continues through town for about a little more than half a mile. Residents report a series of explosions, with fireballs shooting into the sky over the next several hours and a wall of flames that destroys the downtown area, including a bar filled with patrons, the library, and a waterside park, along with dozens of other buildings.

Source: Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

The head of the U.S. railway company whose runaway oil train crashed into a Quebec town blamed the engineer Wednesday for failing to set the brakes properly before the train hurtled down a seven-mile incline, derailed and ignited explosions that killed at least 15 people and left dozens missing.

He said the engineer has been suspended without pay and was under police supervision.

The startling disclosures from Edward Burkhardt, president and CEO of the railway’s parent company, Rail World Inc., came as he encountered sharp criticism from Quebec politicians and jeers from Lac-Megantic residents while making his first visit to the lakeside town where some 60 people remain missing following Saturday’s disaster.

Until Wednesday, the railway had defended its employees’ actions, but that changed abruptly as Burkhardt singled out the engineer as culpable.

“We think he applied some hand brakes, but the question is, did he apply enough of them?” Burkhardt said. “He said he applied 11 hand brakes. We think that’s not true. Initially we believed him, but now we don’t.”

He said the engineer was “under police control.”

“He’s not in jail, but police have talked about prosecuting him,” Burkhardt said. “I understand exactly why the police are considering criminal charges … If that’s the case, let the chips fall where they may.”

Burkhardt did not name the engineer during his impromptu and sometimes chaotic outdoor news conference, though the company had previously identified the employee as Tom Harding of Quebec and termed him a hero for rushing to the scene and managing to stop some of the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway train’s runaway cars. All but one of the 73 cars was carrying oil, and at least five exploded.

Burkhardt, who arrived in town with a police escort, said he had delayed his post-crash visit to Lac-Megantic in order to deal with the crisis from his office in Chicago, saying he was able to communicate better from there with insurers and officials in different places during what he described as 20-hour work days.

“I understand the extreme anger,” he said, likening the devastation in Lac-Megantic to a war zone. “We owe an abject apology to the people in this town.”

He pledged that his company — which will likely face lawsuits — would work with local officials, relief groups and others to help the community recover.

“There’s no question our insurance capabilities will be tested,” he said.

After the wrecked cars are cleared away, Burkhardt said the railway would repair the tracks and resume train operations.

“Very carefully, I might tell you,” he said.

Asked if he’d build those tracks on the perimeter of the town instead of through it again, he said that was under consideration as a long-term plan.

In an exchange with reporters, Burkhardt defended the practice of leaving trains unmanned, as was the case when the runaway began.

“I don’t think it was wrong, but you always look at any accident and you say, ‘How could we have done better?’” he said. “And for the future we, and I think probably the rest of the industry, aren’t going to be leaving these trains unmanned. We’ll take the lead with that. I think the rest of the industry is going to follow.”

Among the residents looking on as Burkhardt spoke was Raymond Lafontaine, a prominent local businessman who is believed to have lost a son, two daughters-in-law and an employee in the disaster.

“That man, I feel pity for him,” Lafontaine said. “Maybe some who know him properly may think he’s the greatest guy in the world, but with his actions, the wait that took place, it doesn’t look good.”