CP British Columbia mountain derailment – families of those killed want to reopen investigation
Written by David C. Lester, Editor-in-Chief
Photo: NetNewsLedger
A Canadian Pacific grain train consisting of 112 cars and three locomotives derailed and crashed into the Kicking Horse River on Feb. 4, 2019. The wreck killed the three crew members on board. Although the official cause has not been determined, the train appeared to lose sufficient braking power to keep the train stopped on the downgrade where it had been sitting for almost three hours. Trouble controlling the brakes prior to the stop forced the engineer to put the brakes in emergency in order to stop the train where he did. However, after three hours, the brakes apparently lost their grip.
CBC News said that it’s own reporting, generated during a seven-month investigation, “uncovered a string of failures in the Train 301 tragedy.” The families of those who died in the crash are demanding that an outside investigation into it be reopened. The only investigation performed by a police agency was the one done by CP Police, and they determined there was no reason to file charges.
One of the CP police officers, Mark Tataryn, says that he was told to focus only on the crew during the investigation, and then the investigation was terminated by CP. Officer Tataryn says unanswered questions remain. An important one is whether CP itself was negligent. The railroad’s response to that question was that Tataryn was a “disgruntled employee,” and before he resigned, he was the focus of a CP internal investigation into his conduct.
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