(The following report appeared on the CBC News website on March 2. Ken LeQuesne and Art McKay were both members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.)
GATINEAU, QUE. — A rotting wooden trestle bridge that was poorly inspected and allowed to deteriorate led a CN Rail freight train to derail in May 2003, killing two employees, according to a Transportation Safety Board report released Wednesday.
The crash, which occurred west of McBride in northeastern British Columbia, was most likely caused by the collapse of the trestle bridge under the weight of the lead locomotive, the board concluded in its final report.
The train burst into flames after plunging off the bridge into a ravine, killing conductor Ken LeQuesne and engineer Art McKay.
CN Rail, which is facing charges that it failed to protect the health and safety of its workers, disagrees with the safety board’s findings.
Spokesperson Mark Hallman insisted Wednesday that the crash was not caused by the structural failure of the bridge, adding that even the Transportation Safety Board “cannot confirm that a bridge component, in fact, failed.”
Hallman said that because the company is involved in criminal proceedings, it cannot comment further. But he says CN will present evidence in court establishing the real cause of the accident.
In the report, the TSB said a detailed inspection in 1999 identified “the severity of the internal rot of several of the trestle bridge’s wooden components.”
But the board blamed “several shortcomings in the inspection, planning and maintenance processes that allowed the unsafe condition to exist.”
The report said the condition of the bridge was not reassessed because of the employees’ heavy workload, overlap of duties and job transitions.