Second Gogama Train Derailment Cause And Action Revealed

By: Nick Liard

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada found a recently repaired rail within a joint broke under the CN train causing it to derail on March 7th 2015 in Gogama.

39 tank cars derailed spilling about 2.6 million litres of product and although there were no injuries the damages to the environment and Makami River were done.

TSB Board Chair Kathy Fox talks about the recommendations they have made following their investigation.

The investigation also revealed an employee who repaired the track, failed to do a dye penetrant test to find defects that can’t be seen by the eye, the employee knew about the test but had never done one.

TSB Board Chair Kathy Fox says while the employee failed to do the test, proper training was not in place for that employee.

TSB says CN has since changed their training and testing protocols.

While there were different circumstances in the derailment compared to one that happened in February 2015 in Gogama, Fox did say there were similarities in that both trains were going under the speed limit so perhaps more has to be done to lower speeds of trains carrying dangerous good.