http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNe...9/wfive_derailments_070209/20070210?hub=WFive
I watched this piece tonight and Im well stunned at how someone is making 46 million dollars salary and cant seem to direct the company to at least ensure the nails are in the ground --Its awful 103 derailments thats every 3 day and the enviroment too boot 500,000 fish in one spill !!!
This is whats happening all over Canada with our food farms ,rail cars the bottom line is MONEY -they sold off lots of our compaies to private ,non caring counrties
Off the Rails
Updated Sat. Feb. 10 2007 6:58 PM ET
Patti-Ann Finlay, W-FIVE
Engineer Gord Rhodes has been a railroader for more than 30 years. He figures he's made the trip from Williams Lake to Squamish more than 2,000 times. Like most experienced railway faithful, he knows what makes a safe train and what doesn't.
"We've done that trip so many times, it's not funny. Up and down the mountain. Switching and coming home," Rhodes says.
On June 29, 2006, Rhodes and two colleagues -- Tommy Dodd and Don Faulkner -- took a CN train trip that would change their lives forever.
"The reality was that we weren't coming out of it. We weren't gonna live," says Rhodes as he ponders what went wrong with Engine 9606. "Nobody was saying anything. 'Cause this isn't supposed to happen," Rhodes adds.
Suddenly the train Rhodes and his team were on gained incredible speed and began to careen out of control.
The safe speed limit on this section of track is 15 miles per hour. Closing in on 50 miles per hour the locomotive is racing along the steep curve -- and then jumped the tracks.
"Well the engine, when it hit the ground....it flicked me off like a bug. And I went airborne and I tumbled and rolled. I could hear all this crashing and booming," Rhodes tells W-FIVE.
The locomotive had crashed down the mountainside. Tommy Dodd and Don Faulkner were dead. Only Rhodes was alive.
"I thought we were all dead. I didn't even know how I survived. I don't know. I was horrified," says Rhodes who worked with Dodd and Faulkner for 14 years.
Hard to believe -- especially after Faulkner's persistent safety questions to CN management. Known for his attention to safety, Faulkner enjoyed the nickname of "Mr. Safety." "He was always into safety," says Karen Hunt, Faulkner's high-school sweetheart and common-law wife.
Faulkner complained to CN and politicians about canceling mandatory safety meetings and for putting what he believed were unsafe trains on tracks. "He felt the lack of CN caring for their employees," says Hunt.
"The day before the accident he was in the office with my daughter and said he was concerned about engines with no dynamic brakes on the heels. He was on the phone with someone and said, 'what has to happen to someone, [do] they have to be killed before they do something about it'," Hunt tells W-FIVE.
It turns out the locomotive wasn't equipped with a very important safety measure called dynamic brakes and that CN was running a flatland train along mountainous track.
"It's a unit that should never be used in the mountains, it's not designed for the type of work that [it] was being used for. It's a prairie engine," says Rhodes.
Even more troubling is the internal CN document that suggests the prairie engine was 'overdue for servicing' and that there were 'no [brake] shoes left.'
Rhodes and others believe dynamic brakes would have saved the lives of Tommy Dodd and Don Faulkner. "If that was a unit that had dynamic braking and it was working, we would not be talking today. And my two friends would still be alive," Rhodes tells W-FIVE.
CN's derailment record is disturbing. In 2005, CN had an astonishing 103 main-track derailments in communities across Canada. That's an average of one derailment every three-and-a-half days.
Forty-three CN cars went off the tracks at Lake Wabamun, Alberta, on August 3, 2005, spilling more than 700,000 litres of bunker oil and wood preservative into the pristine lake. The Alberta Government charged CN with "'failing to take all reasonable measures to remedy and confine a spill," for the Wabamun derailment.
Two days later, on August 5, 2005, another CN train derailed over the Cheakamus River, just outside Squamish, dumping more than 40,000 litres of caustic soda -- a highly corrosive chemical used by the pulp industry. The spill killed nearly half a million fish.
"What we saw were fish experiencing chemical burns....some of them were trying to almost jump out of the river. They were trying to avoid the burns," says Chessy Knight, an aquatic biologist and environmental coordinator for the Squamish district.
When BC Rail was running along this track, they were 80 to 100 cars in length. The CN train that derailed above the Cheakamus River had 144 cars. Longer trains mean bigger profits.
Long-time transportation consultant Greg Gormick says profit-seeking may be behind some of the CN derailments. "Cost cutting that's gone perhaps too far to satisfy investors," Gormick tells W-FIVE.
Cost cutting that is leading to safety problems -- at least that's what Rhodes thinks. "Every train going through this country right now, it's a dice roll with CN," he says.
W-FIVE wanted to talk to CN about their safety history. After weeks of negotiating an interview date, CN agreed to talk to us, on camera -- only to back out of the interview the day before. Instead, CN sent us a seven-page letter extolling their safety record and commitment to safety.
Railway insiders say CN is not the only one to blame, and that government must bear some responsibility for the spike in accidents. Changes to railway legislation have taken power away from government -- yielding more authority to railway companies to develop their own safety schemes. "This is about failed transportation policy," says Gormick.
In recent months, Ottawa appears to have taken a keen interest in the number and severity of derailments. First in November an inquiry was called to investigate rail accidents in B.C. Then in December Transport Canada announced plans for a full review of the Railway Safety Act.
But any review or inquiry may be redundant when the Government probably already has the information they need about CN and railway safety in Canada. A Transport Canada safety audit of CN's practices has been kept secret for some time.
The safety audit, ordered in August 2005, was promised to be made public by the Liberals. Completed last year, the safety audit findings have not been released by the Conservative government. Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon says that's because CN doesn't want it made public. "I would want it to be made public but I can't," Cannon tells W-FIVE.
I watched this piece tonight and Im well stunned at how someone is making 46 million dollars salary and cant seem to direct the company to at least ensure the nails are in the ground --Its awful 103 derailments thats every 3 day and the enviroment too boot 500,000 fish in one spill !!!
This is whats happening all over Canada with our food farms ,rail cars the bottom line is MONEY -they sold off lots of our compaies to private ,non caring counrties
Off the Rails
Updated Sat. Feb. 10 2007 6:58 PM ET
Patti-Ann Finlay, W-FIVE
Engineer Gord Rhodes has been a railroader for more than 30 years. He figures he's made the trip from Williams Lake to Squamish more than 2,000 times. Like most experienced railway faithful, he knows what makes a safe train and what doesn't.
"We've done that trip so many times, it's not funny. Up and down the mountain. Switching and coming home," Rhodes says.
On June 29, 2006, Rhodes and two colleagues -- Tommy Dodd and Don Faulkner -- took a CN train trip that would change their lives forever.
"The reality was that we weren't coming out of it. We weren't gonna live," says Rhodes as he ponders what went wrong with Engine 9606. "Nobody was saying anything. 'Cause this isn't supposed to happen," Rhodes adds.
Suddenly the train Rhodes and his team were on gained incredible speed and began to careen out of control.
The safe speed limit on this section of track is 15 miles per hour. Closing in on 50 miles per hour the locomotive is racing along the steep curve -- and then jumped the tracks.
"Well the engine, when it hit the ground....it flicked me off like a bug. And I went airborne and I tumbled and rolled. I could hear all this crashing and booming," Rhodes tells W-FIVE.
The locomotive had crashed down the mountainside. Tommy Dodd and Don Faulkner were dead. Only Rhodes was alive.
"I thought we were all dead. I didn't even know how I survived. I don't know. I was horrified," says Rhodes who worked with Dodd and Faulkner for 14 years.
Hard to believe -- especially after Faulkner's persistent safety questions to CN management. Known for his attention to safety, Faulkner enjoyed the nickname of "Mr. Safety." "He was always into safety," says Karen Hunt, Faulkner's high-school sweetheart and common-law wife.
Faulkner complained to CN and politicians about canceling mandatory safety meetings and for putting what he believed were unsafe trains on tracks. "He felt the lack of CN caring for their employees," says Hunt.
"The day before the accident he was in the office with my daughter and said he was concerned about engines with no dynamic brakes on the heels. He was on the phone with someone and said, 'what has to happen to someone, [do] they have to be killed before they do something about it'," Hunt tells W-FIVE.
It turns out the locomotive wasn't equipped with a very important safety measure called dynamic brakes and that CN was running a flatland train along mountainous track.
"It's a unit that should never be used in the mountains, it's not designed for the type of work that [it] was being used for. It's a prairie engine," says Rhodes.
Even more troubling is the internal CN document that suggests the prairie engine was 'overdue for servicing' and that there were 'no [brake] shoes left.'
Rhodes and others believe dynamic brakes would have saved the lives of Tommy Dodd and Don Faulkner. "If that was a unit that had dynamic braking and it was working, we would not be talking today. And my two friends would still be alive," Rhodes tells W-FIVE.
CN's derailment record is disturbing. In 2005, CN had an astonishing 103 main-track derailments in communities across Canada. That's an average of one derailment every three-and-a-half days.
Forty-three CN cars went off the tracks at Lake Wabamun, Alberta, on August 3, 2005, spilling more than 700,000 litres of bunker oil and wood preservative into the pristine lake. The Alberta Government charged CN with "'failing to take all reasonable measures to remedy and confine a spill," for the Wabamun derailment.
Two days later, on August 5, 2005, another CN train derailed over the Cheakamus River, just outside Squamish, dumping more than 40,000 litres of caustic soda -- a highly corrosive chemical used by the pulp industry. The spill killed nearly half a million fish.
"What we saw were fish experiencing chemical burns....some of them were trying to almost jump out of the river. They were trying to avoid the burns," says Chessy Knight, an aquatic biologist and environmental coordinator for the Squamish district.
When BC Rail was running along this track, they were 80 to 100 cars in length. The CN train that derailed above the Cheakamus River had 144 cars. Longer trains mean bigger profits.
Long-time transportation consultant Greg Gormick says profit-seeking may be behind some of the CN derailments. "Cost cutting that's gone perhaps too far to satisfy investors," Gormick tells W-FIVE.
Cost cutting that is leading to safety problems -- at least that's what Rhodes thinks. "Every train going through this country right now, it's a dice roll with CN," he says.
W-FIVE wanted to talk to CN about their safety history. After weeks of negotiating an interview date, CN agreed to talk to us, on camera -- only to back out of the interview the day before. Instead, CN sent us a seven-page letter extolling their safety record and commitment to safety.
Railway insiders say CN is not the only one to blame, and that government must bear some responsibility for the spike in accidents. Changes to railway legislation have taken power away from government -- yielding more authority to railway companies to develop their own safety schemes. "This is about failed transportation policy," says Gormick.
In recent months, Ottawa appears to have taken a keen interest in the number and severity of derailments. First in November an inquiry was called to investigate rail accidents in B.C. Then in December Transport Canada announced plans for a full review of the Railway Safety Act.
But any review or inquiry may be redundant when the Government probably already has the information they need about CN and railway safety in Canada. A Transport Canada safety audit of CN's practices has been kept secret for some time.
The safety audit, ordered in August 2005, was promised to be made public by the Liberals. Completed last year, the safety audit findings have not been released by the Conservative government. Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon says that's because CN doesn't want it made public. "I would want it to be made public but I can't," Cannon tells W-FIVE.