LAC-MeGANTIC, Quebec, (Reuters) – The Canadian government did not adequately audit the rail firm at the center of the Lac-Megantic crude tanker disaster that last year killed 47 people, an independent federal agency said on Tuesday, as it called for tougher scrutiny of the rail industry.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada, which issued its final report on what was one of North America’s deadliest rail accidents, said a similar catastrophe could happen again unless more measures were taken to boost rail safety.
Train shipments of crude oil have skyrocketed in Canada and the United States in recent years as energy companies try to compensate for a lack of pipeline capacity.
The disaster occurred after a single engineer parked his train for the night on a main line uphill from the small town of Lac-Megantic, Quebec, in July 2013. The train of oil tankers started rolling after the brakes failed and derailed, exploding in balls of fire and flattening the center of the town.
The TSB said Transport Canada, the federal transportation ministry, had failed to stamp out abuses at Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway Ltd (MMA), the now insolvent company that operated the train.
