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| Deaths Climb From Disaster In Quebec | |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| OTTAWA — The death toll in the fiery derailment of a train in a Quebec town over the weekend rose on Wednesday, with the police reporting that the remains of 20 people had been found. The police also said that 30 more people were still missing, and it is widely assumed that they are dead. | OTTAWA — The death toll in the fiery derailment of a train in a Quebec town over the weekend rose on Wednesday, with the police reporting that the remains of 20 people had been found. The police also said that 30 more people were still missing, and it is widely assumed that they are dead. |
| The news came as the head of the railroad whose runaway tank cars devastated the town said that rule-bending by an engineer had caused the accident. He did not name the engineer or explain why the railroad no longer believed the engineer’s story of what had happened. | The news came as the head of the railroad whose runaway tank cars devastated the town said that rule-bending by an engineer had caused the accident. He did not name the engineer or explain why the railroad no longer believed the engineer’s story of what had happened. |
| Edward Burkhardt, the chairman of the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway, spoke about the accident at a news conference on Wednesday near the site where the train derailed and burst into flames early Saturday morning, destroying much of the center of Lac-Mégantic. | Edward Burkhardt, the chairman of the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway, spoke about the accident at a news conference on Wednesday near the site where the train derailed and burst into flames early Saturday morning, destroying much of the center of Lac-Mégantic. |
| Mr. Burkhardt has offered varying explanations for what happened, at one point blaming “tampering” with the train’s locomotives. But on Wednesday, he told reporters that the train’s engineer had apparently lied to the railroad about whether the hand brakes had been set on 11 of the train’s freight cars when he parked the train uphill from Lac-Mégantic on Friday night, a measure required under Canadian law and the railroad’s internal rules. “It seems that adequate hand brakes were not set on the train,” Mr. Burkhardt said, “and it was the engineer’s responsibility to set them.” | |
| Setting the brakes would have been expected to prevent the train from starting to roll into the town. He said the engineer had been suspended without pay, and added, “I don’t think he’ll be back working with us.” | Setting the brakes would have been expected to prevent the train from starting to roll into the town. He said the engineer had been suspended without pay, and added, “I don’t think he’ll be back working with us.” |
| Mr. Burkhardt, who is also the president and chief executive of Rail World, the railway’s parent company, was greeted by angry hecklers when he arrived in Lac-Mégantic on Wednesday, his first visit since the accident. During the sometimes chaotic news conference, Mr. Burkhardt said that the small railroad’s insurance might not be adequate to cover claims from the derailment, which destroyed 30 buildings. | Mr. Burkhardt, who is also the president and chief executive of Rail World, the railway’s parent company, was greeted by angry hecklers when he arrived in Lac-Mégantic on Wednesday, his first visit since the accident. During the sometimes chaotic news conference, Mr. Burkhardt said that the small railroad’s insurance might not be adequate to cover claims from the derailment, which destroyed 30 buildings. |