If a train crashes in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, does it make any noise?
There is one question on my mind following Saturday’s train crash and fire across the river from Paddlewheel Park: If that crash had occurred in the toolies, 50 miles from nowhere, would we have even heard about it?
News that a similar derailment occurred on the same spot about a week ago seemed to come from CN employees speaking off the record. Maybe I’m out of the loop, but there was no official notification from CN regarding either crash.
A check of the CN website contains a multitude of news releases. The latest has a screamer headline: “CN and Wayne Gretzky team up for CN Miracle Match in support of Stollery Children’s Hospital.”
I searched their website for information on the crash here. Nothing.
Months ago I signed up for CN automatic news release service. I checked my e-mail all weekend. Nothing.
Now, in defence of CN, Kelli Svendson, its regional manager of public and government affairs, was readily available for media all weekend.
However, that’s not my point. My concern is that there isn’t any real public notification of these accidents. I’m sure CN notified the property authorities when the accident occurred, but public notification doesn’t seem to be on their radar. Maybe it isn’t up to the corporation, but I can’t help wondering if this had occurred away from the prying eyes of the public, would notification be given.
And, in light of the amount of hazardous goods that are travelling on our railways (and I use ‘our’ because, according to Premier Gordon Campbell, we didn’t we, the taxpayer, still own the railway … er, railbed), public reporting of accidents is a must.
Rail traffic through Prince George will increase dramatically when the inland port becomes operational. The public has a right to know what is happening in its own backyard in terms of hazardous materials and accidents.
Then there is informing the public and spinning a yarn. The biggest laugher this weekend is CN’s insistence that “no product entered the river.” I’m not sure what that means. Photos of the crash clearly show the river on fire shortly after the derailment. Something entered the river. Perhaps the ‘spin’ doesn’t take into count diesel leaked from the locomotives as ‘product.’ The lumber and gasoline the trains were carrying, which are perhaps technically the product, burned on the shoreline.
CN was already pretty quick to determine that the crash was a result of human error. A supervisor has been tagged as the culprit and he will apparently be disciplined.
A source told me, however, that in such incidents CN uses the Catholic Church method of discipline, the guilty party is simply moved to another jurisdiction where no one knows him and he can start again.
At any rate, it was a spectacular show Saturday afternoon. Thankfully no one was injured.
You can check out our video of the incident on our website: www.pgfreepress.com.