Lac-Megantic train explosion: three employees face charges

The Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway Co. (MMA) and three of its employees will be charged on Tuesday with criminal negligence over last year’s fuel train disaster in Canada, the Quebec prosecutor’s office said.

The provincial prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Monday that it is filing charges against the rail firm and Thomas Harding, the engineer who was operating the train before it crashed, Jean Demaitre, manager of train operations, and Richard Labrie, in charge of rail circulation.

Mr Verret said the three were placed under arrest yesterday and will appear in court later this afternoon in Lac-Megantic.

The derailment occurred after a single engineer, Mr Harding, parked his train for the night on a main line uphill from the small town.

The train of oil tankers started rolling and eventually derailed, exploding into balls of fire and flattening the centre of the town.

US-based MM&A filed for bankruptcy protection in the wake of the disaster.

MM&A Chairman Edward Burkhardt, who was not charged, said in March he had been in touch with investigators “from time to time” to provide requested information.

The company initially blamed the catastrophe on the failure of the train’s pneumatic airbrakes after an engine fire.

Mr Burkhardt later said the train’s engineer did not apply an adequate number of handbrakes to hold the train in place.

Agencies/Canadajournal