Update on train wreck in St-Hilaire, Quebec Canada:

Two cargo trains collided last Thursday in St-Hilaire, Quebec, causing an explosion and the death of 2 operators. Early news reports were saying a split rail was found and sent to labs to determine whether it was the cause of the derailment or if the split rail was due to the explosion.

-This morning on T.V. news, the coroner who examined cause of death of the operators determined 1)that death was caused by the explosion, and 2) the explosion occurred before the collision.

-Another investigative official reported that the cause of the derailment was NOT due to human error, but did not elaborate.

Online story from yesterday on CNEWS:

Monday, January 3, 2000

Investigators get access to site while delicate cleanup efforts continue

MONT-ST-HILAIRE, Que. (CP) -- Investigators set to work Monday to find the cause of a fiery, fatal crash of two CN freight trains last week while delicate cleanup efforts continued at the site.

Transportation Safety Board officials planned to analyse a section of track along the accident site to determine whether it broke before or after the collision, which killed two veteran CN employees last Thursday night.

The next step will be to retrieve the event recorders, or so-called black boxes, from the two trains in an effort to piece together the moments leading up to the crash.

While police have found no signs of criminal action, all other possible causes must be considered, said senior investigator Mario Peloquin.

"We look at the infrastructure, we look at the equipment, human factors, operations of the railway -- all factors that could have contributed," said Peloquin.

One of the trains is believed to have jumped track before falling on the second train in this community just east of Montreal.

The search for the bodies of the trains' locomotive engineer and conductor had been delayed by a blaze following the crash. One of the trains was carrying petroleum products.

Although the trains didn't meet head-on, the crash triggered a series of explosions.

A spokesman for the coroner's office said the two victims likely died instantly as a result of the explosions.

About 700 people were evacuated briefly from their homes near the crash site.

Of the 61 cars involved in the derailment, 15 remained to be emptied of their petroleum Monday before being removed from the scene.

Crews were proceeding slowly to avoid sparking another fire, said CN spokesman Pierre Leclerc.

Once the cleanup is complete, CN will have to replace about 300 metres of track.

Leclerc said traffic could resume on the line by Thursday night.

-- Chris (catsy@xxx.com), January 04, 2000

Answers

so?

-- (I'm@pol.ly), January 04, 2000.

[This was on same site, thought it was worth a mention because of the "...but y2k was not to blame".]

January 1, 2000

The lights went out in parts of Ontario, but Y2K was not to blame

TORONTO (CP) -- A few minor power outages hit across Ontario on Friday but none were caused by the Y2K bug, said a spokesman for Ontario Hydro Services. "There were no reported Y2K problems," Terry Young said, "but we didn't expect any, we'd had the program in place for three years." About 3,500 customers were affected by the outages in Windsor, Guelph, the North Bay area and Toronto, Young said. "They were equipment or accident related," Young said.

Power was back within 30 minutes for the 140 Toronto customers. In the other three cases, power was restored within two hours, said Young. As part of year 2000 preparations, crews were deployed across the province so they could be dispatched quickly if problems occurred. As the clock ticked over midnight, the transmission and distribution system was operating normally, Young said.

http://www.canoe.ca/OntQueTicker/CANOE-wire.Hydro-Outages.html

-- Chris (catsy@xxx.com), January 04, 2000.

There was a 17 car pile-up here a few days ago.

-- (I'm@pol.ly), January 04, 2000.