Big fire and explosion in Canada

[MRT144]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2013/07/09/quebec-lac-megantic-eyewitness-video.html

[Sava]

French is so silly. It's like a cartoon language.

[Wezil]

It's a pretty huge tragedy for such a small town.

[Docfeelgood]

French is so silly. It's like a cartoon language.

Sounds so guttural and primitive just like the way the british speak.

[Asher]

This is why people who oppose oil pipelines are idiots.

Rail is 100x more dangerous and deadly.

[snoopy369]

But freight trains are cool! My kids say so...

[The Mad Monk]

Why was nobody on the train? I would think that it would be a basic protocol.

[Wezil]

That's part of the ongoing discussion MM.

As I understand it (I think I'm close enough for folk):

The train "parked' outside the small town for the night.
The single engineer on board (presumably) secured the train before going elsewhere to sleep for the night.
A short time later fire fighters arrived to fight a fire that broke out on one of the engines (small by all accounts).
Shortly after they (and a railway rep apparently) leave the scene the train starts rolling.

[Wezil]

As you can imagine there is extensive finger pointing going on and getting actual facts seems to be difficult.

Lots of discussion issues though...

- Single engineer issue you mentioned
- Oil by train as Asher mentioned
- Nature of the brakes (shouldn't the default be brakes applied?)
- Lack of electronic monitoring on tracks to alert to runaway trains
- Safety record of the involved company (apparently they aren't new to derailments)

[Lul Thyme]

Latest version is that the firemen turned off the engine/power/whatever, which is presumably standard procedure in case of a fire.
Somehow this turned off the brakes.

[Wezil]

Yeah, that's what I don't get. You would think brakes would be applied in the absence of power as a standard safety feature.

[Fake Boris]

This is why people who oppose oil pipelines are idiots.

Rail is 100x more dangerous and deadly.

This is the bandwagon the oil industry was quick to catch right as the tragedy unraveled.

While pipelines are less likely to explode, they're more likely to cause spills, with other adverse effects.

The bottom line is still: get rid of oil!

[Wezil]

...and while we're waiting for that to happen?

[Sava]

The bottom line is still: get rid of oil!

I'd rather just pretend there aren't any negative effects or enormous hidden costs and call everyone who thinks otherwise a moron... because this is the internet.

[Wezil]

Meh. Quebec couldn't afford their generous social programs without the tax income from Alberta oil. It's a case of be careful what you wish for.