page_title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster
section_title: Events shortly before the derailment
hierarchical_section_title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster / Chronology / Events shortly before the derailment
caption_attribution_description: English: Highlighted path of the train from nantes to lac-megantic. Map from http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=45.6058&amp;lon=-70.9204&amp;zoom=12&amp;layers=T.
context_page_description: The Lac-Mégantic rail disaster occurred in the town of Lac-Mégantic, in the Eastern Townships region of Quebec, Canada, at approximately 01:15 EDT, on July 6, 2013, when an unattended 74-car freight train carrying Bakken Formation crude oil rolled down a 1.2% grade from Nantes and derailed downtown, resulting in the fire and explosion of multiple tank cars. Forty-two people were confirmed dead, with five more missing and presumed dead. More than 30 buildings in the town's centre, roughly half of the downtown area, were destroyed, and all but three of the thirty-nine remaining downtown buildings had to be demolished due to petroleum contamination of the townsite. Initial newspaper reports described a 1-kilometre blast radius.
  The death toll of 47 makes it the fourth-deadliest rail accident in Canadian history, and the deadliest involving a non-passenger train. It is also the deadliest rail accident since Canada's confederation in 1867; the last Canadian rail accident to have a higher death toll was the St-Hilaire train disaster in 1864, which killed 99.
context_section_description: The freight train "MMA 2" departed the CPR yard in Côte-Saint-Luc early in the day of July 5 and changed crews at the MMA yard in Farnham. After departing Farnham, it stopped at about 23:00 at the designated MMA crew change point in Nantes, which is 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) west of Lac-Mégantic.
  The engineer, Tom Harding, parked the train on the main line by setting the brakes and followed standard procedure by shutting down four of the five locomotives. Harding, who was the lone crew member under the MMA's work rules, which had been discussed with Transport Canada, could not park the train on the adjacent siding because MMA used it routinely to store empty boxcars for Tafisa, a particleboard factory in Lac-Mégantic's industrial park. The Nantes siding has a derail that could have stopped the train from accidentally departing. According to Transport Canada, it is unusual to leave an unattended train parked on a main line, but there were no regulations against it.
  Harding left the lead locomotive No. 5017 running to keep air pressure supplied to the train's air brakes and also applied a number of hand brakes. Yves Bourdon, a member of MMA's board of directors, stated that the air brakes of all locomotives and freight cars had been activated, as well as hand brakes on 5 locomotives and 10 of the 72 freight cars. However, the TSB agrees with a July 6 statement to police by the train's engineer that he set hand brakes on just the five locomotive engines, a buffer car, and a car housing the remote control apparatus. The engineer also attempted a brake test but incorrectly left the locomotive air brakes on; this gave the false impression that the hand brakes alone would hold the train.
  Harding contacted the rail traffic controller in Farnham to advise them that the train was secure. Next, he contacted the rail traffic controller in Bangor, Maine, to report that the lead locomotive had experienced mechanical difficulties throughout the trip and that excessive black and white smoke was coming from its smoke stack. Expecting the smoke to settle, they agreed to deal with the situation the following morning.
  Section 112 of the Canadian Rail Operating Rules states "when equipment is left at any point a sufficient number of hand brakes must be applied to prevent it from moving" and "the effectiveness of the hand brakes must be tested” before relying on their retarding force. The engineer tests the hand brakes by seeing if the train budges when trying to push and pull the train with locomotive power. If a train is left on an incline, the number of handbrakes needed to hold the train increases. It takes 2–3 minutes per car to set the hand brakes. The track from Nantes to Lac-Mégantic is downhill on a 1.2% grade. Nantes is 515 metres (1,690 ft) above sea level, Lac Mégantic is 108 m (354 ft) lower at 407 m (1,335 ft). The MMA claimed that its braking policy required the activation of hand brakes on the five locomotives and 11 freight cars, or 20.5% of the total train. However, the TSB confirmed evidence in the criminal charges citing MMA procedures requiring nine brakes to hold a 70–79 car train. The TSB concluded that a minimum of 17 and possibly as many as 26 hand brakes would have been needed to secure the train, depending on the amount of force with which they had been applied. Transport Canada does not validate the special instructions of a railway company or give any specific guidance on how many brakes must be applied for parked freight trains. While Transport Canada had repeatedly reprimanded MMA from 2004 to 2009 and in 2011 and 2012 for violations of CROR Section 112 handbrake requirements on parked trains in Nantes, no fines had been issued for the infractions.
  The TSB found that MMA's operating plan was to leave the train parked on the main line, unattended, with an unlocked locomotive cab, alongside a public highway where it was accessible to the general public, with no additional protection. However, there were no rules against leaving a train unlocked, running and unattended, even if it contained dangerous materials and was
caption: The train traveled 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) down a descending grade from Nantes to Lac-Mégantic.
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