Business
Eight parties charged with violating Rail Safety Act in Lac-Mégantic derailment

By David George-Cosh
@itsdgc
david.george-cosh@wsj.com

Updated June 22, 2015 9:39 p.m. ET

The Canadian government said Monday it had laid charges against nine parties in connection with the deadly derailment of a crude-carrying train in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, in July 2013.

Eight parties were charged with violating the Railway Safety Act, according to the country’s transportation ministry, after an investigation found the train’s hand brakes hadn’t been properly applied. The country’s environment ministry, meanwhile, laid nine charges related to the unlawful dumping of crude oil into the town’s lake and a nearby river.

The charges were the first the Canadian government has laid in connection with the accident, in which an unattended train carrying oil from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale formation jumped the tracks and erupted in flames. Forty-seven people were killed and a large part of the Quebec town’s core was destroyed.

All the individuals charged by the transportation ministry worked for the train’s operator, Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway Ltd., or MM&A, which is now defunct. They include the train’s driver, Thomas Harding, and Jean Demaître, a train operations manager. The two men separately pleaded not guilty last year to criminal charges filed by Quebec prosecutors in connection with the accident.