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Safety board chair says more needs to be done five years after Lac-Megantic

Jul 4, 2018 | 5:00 PM

OTTAWA — The head of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada says much has been accomplished five years after the Lac-Megantic train derailment in which 47 people were killed, but more remains to be done.

Kathleen Fox, the board’s chair, said Wednesday that not enough attention has been paid to finding ways that would prevent uncontrolled movement of stationary trains.

A runway train carrying 7.7 million litres of petroleum crude oil derailed and exploded in the heart of Lac-Megantic early in the morning of July 6, 2013.

Fox also noted that new and more robust rail tanker cars to transport crude oil will not be obligatory until 2025. They are to replace the class 111 tanker cars that were involved in the Lac-Megantic derailment.