Tess Kalinowski, Carola Vyhnak and Richard J. Brennan Staff reporters
Toronto Star
Published On Wed Mar 31 2010
Residents and commuters might not be so lucky next time, says a Pickering mayoral candidate who witnessed the latest in a series of Durham Region freight train derailments Tuesday.
Maurice Brenner, who wants Pickering to pressure Ottawa for tighter rail safety regulations, watched in horror Tuesday as three CN locomotives and nine freight cars jumped the tracks near the PickeringGO station.
The cause is still under investigation. But in the wake of the accident, metres from the passenger platform, Pickering Mayor David Ryan and Liberal MP Dan McTeague expressed concern about the number of train accidents in the area.
While Tuesday’s derailment was the sixth in as many years in Durham, “one accident is one too many,” said Canada’s junior transport minister, Rob Merrifield. “It is the busiest (rail) corridor in Canada, that’s why I want a thorough investigation done of this one,” he told reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday.
Even so, Merrifield noted that rail incidents are down 83 per cent and fatalities down 57 per cent across the country. He said the government decided last year to pump $72 million into rail safety improvements over five years.
Meantime, railways and industry experts dismissed suggestions of any link among the six Durham Region incidents.
“I don’t think there’s anything specific to that area,” said Mike Cyr, director of rail services for GO Transit. “There’s nothing that I’ve read on those derailments that’s similar in all circumstances.”
Two CP derailments occurred on a different track than the CN line that runs past the PickeringGO station. There have also been freight derailments in Georgetown, Brampton and Cobourg during the same period, Cyr noted.
“CN main-track accidents in Canada are down 70 per cent year-to-date in 2010, compared to the same period of 2009. Last year, CN main-track accidents in Canada were down more than 35 per cent from 2008. Clearly, the trend is going in the right direction,” said CN spokesperson Mark Hallman.
CN has recorded six accidents in Canada this year, compared with 22 for the same period of 2009. Last year there were 41 accidents total, compared with 65 for 2008, he said.
Tuesday’s incident involved an eastbound train hauling three non-operating locomotives as well as nine cars carrying plastics, lumber and potash. There was no leak in the single car that was carrying methylene diphenyl diisocyanate, a chemical used to make polyurethane foam for freezer and fridge insulation. Some diesel fuel did spill, however.
CN runs about 40 freights through the Toronto area each day. That’s scary, says Nancy Skelly, standing on a backyard deck, just a long stone’s throw from the site of Tuesday’s mishap.
“It came very close to someone getting killed,” said Skelly.
“If there was a chemical spill or explosion, the whole neighbourhood would have to be evacuated. If the wind was blowing this way, it will definitely affect my health and well-being.” she said.
“The ones that scare me most are VIA. They rip through here at a buck sixty. That comes with a danger; they need to slow down through the city,” said Dana Hildebrand, who lives across the road with his wife and two children.
Rail traffic averages about five or six an hour through the day, he said. “Once it hits 11 at night, it’s cargo train after cargo train and you don’t know what they’re carrying.”
That’s the “nasty” part, said neighbour Bill Buffan, who “kind of got woken up to what could happen.”
“All of a sudden, you think ‘propane tanker,’ then you’re thinking ‘GO train,’ and then freight and chemicals. It’s scary.”
“Terrifying” is more like it for an Oshawa resident whose family had front-row seats to a wreck last June.
“There was a great big rumbling and everything was shaking,” Peggy Collins recalled of the accident when two CP locomotives and 27 cars went off the rails less than 100 metres from her house near Park Rd. and Highway 401. “Stuff was on fire, the engine was leaking diesel fuel, there was spilled powder all over the place. All the neighbours were saying, ‘Get outta here now!’”
About 12 per cent of all rail traffic in Canada carries dangerous goods, according to the Railway Association of Canada.
Freights run at lower speeds through highly populated areas. Sensors that detect heat on the wheels and bearings of the train and equipment that might be dragging are also placed at closer intervals along the tracks in cities.
Pickering’s fire department doesn’t handle hazardous materials or fight chemical fires — that’s the job of railways and private companies, said Chief Bill Douglas, noting that firefighters’ priority is keeping the community safe.
But because rail mishaps cover the full spectrum of risks, “to say we could handle every event would be stretching it,” he said. “We were very lucky this time. There was no gas and just a minor fire. But we never know. A train derailment can be huge, like a plane crash.”
“Tragedy has been looming for years and it keeps happening,” said William Brehl, president of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, who accused the railroads of putting profit ahead of safety.
“Something like the Mississauga train derailment could happen again very, very easily. They (derailments) are all pretty scary, and they are getting worse,”
The Transportation Safety Board reports only on some train derailments, said spokesperson John Cottreau.
It will issue a written report on the most recent derailment, what it calls a Class 3 investigation, at some point. Cottreau said it was too soon to say whether the investigation would be upgraded to a Class 2, which would also result in recommendations to prevent further similar incidents.
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