Lac-Mégantic became an episode of Breaking Bad

[cali]

As in Lac-Mégantic, cutting safety margins is the modern corporate way. That’s why trains crash.


Thanks to his boss, the garrulous Ed Burkhardt, who runs the infamous Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, Tom Harding has a target on his back. Harding is the lone engineer who parked—and braked—the train in Lac-Mégantic after his shift, as he always does.

Burkhardt has blamed him and suspended him, which seems monstrously unfair as the facts of the case have yet to be determined. I am hearing from rail experts about air brakes and hand brakes, how many hand brakes on the locomotives and cars on a 72-car train should be applied, particularly on a hill, why an engine has to be on for air brakes to function, how the loss of locomotives’ air brakes would affect already hand-braked cars, how to calculate how much braking a gradient demands, and so on.

<snip>

In the real Breaking Bad, the American cable TV drama about staffing, sourcing and retail in the New Mexico crystal meth industry, the depots with the bulk methylamine that Walter White needs to make large quantities of crystal meth always have locks, CCTV, watchmen and 24-hour computer tracking.

Crystal meth, crude oil, same difference. Once you have the demand (consumers) and the cooks (oil refineries), your main problem is supply.

<snip>

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/07/13/lacmgantic_became_an_episode_of_breaking_bad.html

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Thank you for your posts about the Lac-Mégantic disaster.

[cali]

2. I've just been reading about the victims

so heartbreaking.

thanks, cooley.

[Cooley Hurd]

3. It's been blowing my mind...

What happened there is just beyond my scope of comprehension. A sleepy town at 1am is shredded by a major fuckup by a mere few. And, it's been under-reported here in the states, even though it was 6 miles from the US border.

[cali]

4. The responsible party as this op point out is a U.S. corporation