Train derails in Lac Mégantic, half a town destroyed.

[AshHill07]

The more I read about this the more suspicious I get that it may have been a deliberate act.

I know quite a lot about British and American trains, and I find it very unusual that 73 tanker cars would just randomly become uncoupled from its locomotives without the airbrakes looseing pressure, even if the driver did forget to apply the brakes. The driver of the train was actually at a hotel in the town near the yard getting some rest before taking the train the rest of its journey. Can't imagine how shocked and confused he must have been when he returned to his train only to find the 5 locomotives sat there with no tankers behind them.

Edit:
Seems some of the information I got from the BBC was incorrect and the locomotives were still attached to the 72 (Not 73) tankers on the train, I've also managed to find this press release from MMA with more information regarding the train. It is still unusual for a train to derail in this way, as even though there was no driver in the cab, the emergency brakes should have kicked in regardless after the train started moving. This isen't a repeat of the incident with CSX where the air brakes wern't setup correctly, because the train had clearly been moveing and operateing safely up until being parked up.

---

\\ CDR David Roberts \\ CAPT Steven Eversman \\ VADM Ash Hill // RDML Chris Murray // CDR Mick Connors //
\\ SFC| Patrol-7 \\ SFC| LNS-California \\ SFC| LNT-Century // SFC| LNS-San.Francisco // SFC| Patrol-5 //