Lac-Mégantic: a train with 7 hand brakes rolled away and killed 47 people

On 6 July 2013, an unattended 73-car Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway freight train carrying Bakken crude oil rolled down a 1.2% grade from Nantes, Quebec, and derailed in the centre of Lac-Mégantic. The engineer had set only 7 to 11 hand brakes before leaving the train unattended on the main line — a minimum of 17 to 26 were needed. The lead locomotive had a defective engine that had been repaired with epoxy, which failed and caused a fire that led firefighters to shut down the engine, disabling the air brake system.

As air leaked from the brake system, the hand brakes — already too few — could not hold the 9,400-tonne train on the grade. The train rolled unchecked for 11 kilometres, reaching 105 km/h before derailing in a sharp curve in the centre of town. The resulting explosions and fire destroyed over 30 buildings, roughly half the downtown core. 47 people were killed. The fire burned for nearly two days.

The Transportation Safety Board identified 18 distinct causes and contributing factors, including weak regulatory oversight by Transport Canada, which permitted single-person train operation with no rules against leaving a train carrying dangerous goods unattended on a slope. The railway was charged with 47 counts of criminal negligence. CEO Edward Burkhardt faced widespread condemnation. The disaster led to major changes in the regulation of dangerous goods transport by rail in North America.