Train Wiped Out a Town - The Lac-Mégantic Disaster 2013

While Mr. Harding screwed up by not engaging enough brakes, a train carrying crude oil should not have had one engineer managing the train.

I like how they told him to stay at his hotel after he offered, and wanted, to go back to the train, to see it and secure it for his own peace of mind, but they said “just stay there, no need to go back, get some sleep” and then charge him with negligence. Typical corporate.

This is the kind of town I want to live in. The community came together and defended 3 strangers and instead focused their attention on a bigger company. They must’ve known they wouldn’t win, but still wanted justice for those who are victims. That’s a true community.

I am from Lac-Mégantic. I was present during the tragedy. Seeing these pictures gives me chills. I can still hear the terrible hiss that this fire has been making all night. Bravo for the documentary, your information is correct and well explained.

I'm touched how the citizens of Lac-Megantic didn't blame the three employees, and even stood by them.

Man just hearing that conversation with Tom and his manager and then what transpired afterwards hits hard bro. Asking if he should go back and check on the train after he absolutely sure he secured it within spec, then finding out later that it was his train that derailed. That could have happened to any one of us that holds a job with some crucial responsibility. It's super fucked up that their company threw them under the bus but I'm glad that they were all acquitted!

Feel so bad for Mr. Harding.. he did everything he thought he was supposed to do and one little mix up (which definitely happened because he was the singular ONLY operator) screwed it all. Even after the first little smoke started, he offered to go back to the train and make sure everything was okay, but his superior told him not to and go to bed.. Harding almost certainly would’ve caught the error had he went back like he said he would..

A week before the disaster, the town had hosted the national cycling championship, it was one of the most beautiful venue I've raced at. It felt so surreal to think that the whole place was gone in smoke right after we were there. Returning there a few years later left me with such an hollow feeling in my guts.

This story left out a few details. When the engineer did the air brake test one of the devices on the engine that indicated that the air brakes were applied wasn't functioning so it indicated that the air brakes were not applied even though they were. The engineer did the proper tests but got fooled by the faulty air brake indicator that all the air brakes had been released. A second problem was that a device in the other engines that would have started the engine up automatically with low air brake pressure was not working. So basically it was the combination of several poorly maintained our broken devices on that train that led to the accident.

It hits me every time I hear this story overall I do not blame Tom Harding he did what he thought was necessary to operate the defective train and blame the inferior company he worked for

I met the engineer Tom Harding, years before the incident at CP in Montreal. A really good fellow. I am grateful the MM&A Short line Railway and owners were blamed for their bad decisions

Watching this after what’s going on in Ohio right now and wondering when the next catastrophe will occur. One man crews are a terrible idea. PSR and other safety measures being cut so executives can remain paid well. Workers don’t even get paid sick leave. Between the government and the large rail companies/shareholders, no one takes responsibility and yet these tragedies keep happening. How frightening for us all.

It seems crazy that one person could ever be in charge of such a large train. What if there's a medical emergency? People do faint, have strokes, heart attacks, allergic reactions etc. with zero warning sometimes.

Lac-Megantic is taught in Canada as a "what not to do" for crisis communications. Shortly after the disaster, the rail company CEO was slow to respond, put blame everywhere else, gave insincere apologies, and eventually got someone to communicate with affected residents ... who couldn't speak French. The CEO also took over a week longer than it was safe to even visit the town (while the Prime Minister visited as soon as the fires were out). Another really sad point about this disaster is one of the buildings closest to the blast was the town's senior care home.

I didn't know the square root of jack sh*t about Quebec, but after hearing how the residents came out in droves to support the 3 guys who were scapegoated, that is pure awesome. Every time I learn about French culture (old world or new) I come away highly impressed. The French are just ungovernable. I like that.

My grandpa’s ashes were there when this happened. As you can imagine my grandmother was devastaded when this happened. The whole province experienced the tragedy

“So the coroners had to use DNA samples to identify them” So my late Step-Father Hamish was the ME for the Piper Alpha Disaster, was the last case he took because he couldn’t be in the morgue any more after that, dealing with that volume of burnt human remains is such a harrowing job it left Hamish with pretty crippling PTSD (during a time PTSD didn’t get much support and was heavily judged). So trust me when I say I really feel for those coroners, they had one hell of a task where they’re not receiving whole cadavers but rather parts of them, just small, mangled parts of people, images you can’t get out your head no matter how hard you try. I really hope the coroners had a strong support system, people who were able to love and support them, because it’s such an incredibly difficult job with explosions like this. Hamish died by suicide a decade ago, it was just something that never left him, and hearing about disasters like this where I learn the coroners dealt with similar circumstances, I can only pray they have lots of love, strong support and understanding, because even then it’s not enough.

Canada now forbids solo or one-person operations on all trains. A minimum of two or three personnel must accompany a train in Canada. As for the US, no rules have been forced to the rail companies to prohibit one person train operations.

I was 10 years old when this happened. I remember seeing it on the news and being told about it, but I never was able to grasp the full extent of the disaster until today. I now have a better understanding of what these people went through and who is to blame for what happened. I sincerely thank you for covering these events.

This reminds me of our local incident (Alvia accident). In Spain something similar happened, also in 2013. A HV train full of passangers derailed leaving 80 deaths and 145 injured. The train took a turn at 200km/h when it had to slow down to 80km/h. It also happened by a combination of human error and poor security measures. The train operator was called by the train company and was speaking with them and overlooked the one and only warning sign and did not slow down, causing the catastrophe. The operator received all the blame, but 9 years after the incident, laste year (2022) the trials began and we all expect the company to take its part of the responsability if not all the responsability. This is why security measures are important and have to be solid. RIP all the victims.