Last week's tragedy at Lac-Megantic involving a runaway train and exploding oil tanker cars in the centre of the small city, is another classic example of a strange string of events occurring in a sequence that leads to an horrific outcome.
A little carelessness can go a long way.
This has not been a good summer for citizens in Calgary, High River or Lac-Megantic, and to a lesser extent for small pockets of populations in the central and northern sectors of our own province who have been displaced due to flood waters. We can identify with their plight, at least on one level.
What the Lac-Megantic incident tells us in no uncertain terms is that you can have all kinds of rules, regulations, guidelines, legislation and laws attached to your industry or service, but if the human component is going to ignore them, or only apply them, then those protective regulations and laws aren't going to mean much.
The chances of something similar to this event happening again, with all these factors coming together like they did, are practically non-existent.
Train operating regulations are extensive in Canada, yet they still have their accidents, usually due to the human elements. There are fewer of them, but they are still going to happen. That's why we should always be on our toes and prepared for anything and everything when it comes to rail traffic passing through the centre of our city. We had a big scare a few years ago with the derailment of some cars containing a cargo that could have been noxious. There were no spills, no tragedy attached, but it still took several days to clean up.
Will we be so fortunate the next time?
There are regulations such as the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act, the Railway Safety Act and provincial and federal communications regulations pertaining to movement by rail. There are rules emitted by Transport Canada and the Canadian Transportation Agency. That's all well and good.
What we have to keep in mind though is that our two national rail lines answer to no one other than themselves and a federal authority. They do not need to adhere or even listen to local concerns. They might make it seem as if they really, truly care about your community, but when they roll right across a vast continent like ours, they can't afford to get bogged down with regional concerns, community wishes or provincial legislations.
Their job is to get products to their assigned destinations on time and in good condition. The only thing that really can halt them is weather and tragedy.
What we have to keep in mind is that the Lac-Megantic incident involved a railroad, the Montreal, Main & Atlantic Railway, is headquartered in Chicago. They apparently allow their "train crew" to consist of one person and when he got tired, he shut it down. How effectively he shut it down, is now in question and up to 50 people are now dead, perhaps because somebody forgot to set enough hand brakes on an antiquated safety system. Again lots of regulations to cover off any contingency, but were they followed?
When 95 per cent of our accidental tragedies occur due to human error or Mother Nature, we look at the devastation that is Lac-Megantic and can only wonder at what could have been done to prevent it if anything.
At the same time, every community that has a railway running through it, like many do in Canada, are asking themselves these two clear questions: What is running on the rails through our town? And, what can we do about it?
Right now, the answers are also clear.
We don't know and nothing.
We can be prepared for the aftermath of a tragic rail event, but on the preventative side, we're at the mercy of unknown others.
That's not too comforting.
