Photo: Yorkton This Week
The Transportation Safefy Board has released its report into a serious train derailment near the town of Clair in October of 2014.
The board says the derailment which sent 26 cars of 100 off the track was caused by a broken rail that had a defect which went un-noticed.
Lead investigator Rob Johnston says regular ultrasonic testing of the track is required once a year and CN had inspected this track seven times the year before the accident. But the surface of the rail masked the defect, he said.
“CN far exceeded the regulatory requirement because they did recognize that there were issues with certain areas of this track,” Johnston said at a news conference in Saskatoon Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, this one kind of just fell through the cracks.”
The rail section was built in 1959.
CN spokesman Jim Feeny said at the time of the accident that the train was going within the speed limit of 40 km/h when it derailed and the stretch of track had been inspected just a day before the crash.
The derailment forced an evacuation of the immediate area because of a huge plume of smoke which was thought to be toxic.
Six of the cars that went off the track were carrying hazardous materials, but none of those cars broke open after the derailment.
(With files from Canadian Press)
