Seeking information in Prince George

How close did Prince George come to a major disaster this past weekend? That’s the question being posed by many in the Central Interior as investigators try to understand what happened on the railroad and how it happened last Saturday.

The Opinion 250 website has been doing some fairly intensive investigating into the derailment and has posed some interesting questions that don’t seem to be getting answers at the moment.

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From a manifest that wasn’t shared with emergency officials, to a singular CN employee apparently risking his life to uncouple the cars closest to the burning rail cars, the website is wondering just what was on those rail cars on Saturday and how big a threat did Prince George unknowingly face.

CN isn’t rushing to share the details of their manifest with a Public relations officer suggesting that the railway will not release the manifest of what was in the other cars as “they weren’t part of the incident”. An interesting statement that makes for a fine bit of neighbourliness for those in Prince George, folks that might wish to know what’s passing through their neighbourhoods on a Saturday morning.

Opinion 250 has catalogued much of the events of Saturday, including the details of the heroic deeds of that CN employee who uncoupled those cars and now according to the websites sources, unbelievably may very well face internal discipline for putting himself in harms way.

Even more intriguing for the website, has been the reaction of the municipal government for the City of Prince George which has remained rather silent on the handling of the incident and any danger it may have posed for its citizens. They’re asking questions about the weekend’s events that maybe the Mayor and the council of Prince George should be asking.

With CN planning to expand the number of trains across Northern BC with the coming of the container Port, communities across Northern BC may wish to make some notes. It might be worthwhile to know what’s rolling through your town whether it’s in the middle of a sunny Saturday morning or in the middle of a dark and stormy night.

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Regardless of the policy currently in place, a more seamless exchange of information between the railroad and the communities it runs through seems to be a desirable thing.

Considering the recent high profile derailments in the province, communities should be demanding better information and less secrecy.

The Prince George news website is doing some fine work in seeking out the facts, but it really shouldn’t be this hard to find out something that is of major importance to every town across the CN Northern main line.

(map above from Opinion 250 site)

CN Derailment A Close Call
By 250 News
Wednesday, August 08, 2007 04:01 AM

Distance between derailment and residential areas, just 313 yards (288 meters) apart.

Did residents of the Prince George neighbourhood of “South Fort” dodge a bullet on the weekend when two CN trains collided on the tracks on the east side of the Fraser River?

The collision took place at 10:20 a.m., one train contained cars moving lumber products, and the other was hauling a host of tank cars. It appears that while CN executives knew what the tankers contained, others on the scene trying to prevent a potential disaster did not.

When asked if there were dangerous or hazardous products contained in any of the tank cars, Assistant Deputy Fire Chief John Lane said CN reps were on hand with the manifest, but just as soon as the train was uncoupled and the cars moved away from the scene, he had no reason to ask. ‘They were pulled from the scene so fast we didn’t know what was contained in those other tanker cars” said Lane.

The call to the fire department was received around 10:20 in the morning. Lane did a briefing with members of the media at noon. At that time, the tanker cars, with the unknown contents, were still coupled to the train. They are visible in the background of a digital photo taken at the time.

While CN is not commenting, it is known that if it hadn’t been for the heroics of a CN employee who rushed to the derailment and uncoupled the two trains from the burning or at risk cars, the scenario might have been very different.

According to Lane, the car that was immediately to the north of the gasoline tank car contained either diesel or gasoline, but that is as far he went. Police sources say they were never informed about what was contained in the other cars.

CN spokesperson Kelli Svendsen, says the railway will not release the manifest of what was in the other cars as “they weren’t part of the incident”. Nor will CN release the name of the person who rushed in to uncouple the cars; it is not the company’s practice to release names of employees. One insider tells Opinion250 the person who risked their life to uncouple those cars may very well face discipline for putting himself in harms way.

According to the safety standards employed by emergency response teams in all of North America, when dealing with a derailment like the one that happened in Prince George Saturday, the perimeter around the scene should be, at minimum, 800 meters, or ½ a mile.
The distance from Paddle Wheel Park to the derailment site was a mere 313 yards, or 288 meters.

CN says while it has concluded it was human error that caused the collision, all other information on the crash will have to come from the Transportation Board which is conducting an investigation.

The Union (UTU) appears to have been vindicated in its claim that CN was moving too many cars. A notice of orders delivered to CN calls for a maximum of 40 cars of which ten must be empty, or a total of 30 “loads”. The Transportation Board also ordered an end to the Point of Protection Zone, saying it gave a false sense of security that there were no other trains in the area, and there was an order that an employee must be on the lead equipment and visual contact be kept with the tracks at all time during switching. Opinion250 had been told the trains were being switched by “remote control”.

CN has taken immediate action to comply with the 5 orders it has been given.

Just What Was In Those CN Tanker Cars? One Man's Opinion
By Ben Meisner
Wednesday, August 08, 2007 03:45 AM

If you look at the picture of the CN train collision in Prince George on the weekend, you will notice in the picture taken at 10:33 am by an alert PG resident that the tank cars are still all attached to the CN train that slammed into the lumber train creating an explosion and then a fire of major proportions.

If you check the other pictures you will also see that it took some time to uncouple the tank cars from the burning trains, at least an hour and half after the initial collision.

If you then check with what came out of the Command Post put together to protect the people of South Fort George, you will also notice that while people were being told by police to stay back one half mile from the blaze, no one was telling either the residents or the media to inform or warn residents within 288 meters of the burning inferno that the cars behind those on fire contained hazardous products.

We have learned that CN brass arrived on the scene with the manifest for the train of tank cars, but did not tell the, “command “post what was in them. Deputy Fire Chief John Lane says "We didn’t then or now, know what was contained in those tank cars, because they were moved away from the scene after they had been uncoupled."

Now let’s just suppose that the fire had spread to them before a heroic effort by a CN employee to uncouple them.

What was in those cars? We were told at first that at least one contained methanol, we also were told that the tank car that did not burn contained diesel or gasoline.

We were told that the gasoline tanker acted in the proper manner, the gas began to boil and the venting system let it burn off.

If the Transport Safety Board says we must stay at least ½ mile away from such a scene, then why didn’t someone inform police to move the crowd back? They weren’t in charge they were there doing their job (traffic and crowd control) and it was up to the ‘command “post to tell them what to do.

So four days later, we still don’t know what was in those other cars. Was it hazardous? Did it pose a risk to the people of the city and if so, to what extent? If for example one of those cars contained propane, what would the effects be of an explosion?

Someone over at city hall had better do a bit of digging to see where the ball was dropped.
As for CN they had better change their approach which is to keep their mouth shut unless forced open by some governing body.

Ultimately the governing body is the Canadian Government, and last time I checked that would be "us". We were not informed.

With residents and emergency personnel 288 metres from ground zero, cars burning and more attached, maybe CN can tell us just when does it no longer become a "need to know" situation?

I’m Meisner and that’s one man's opinion.