Canadian Railroads > Saturday morning update on Woss disaster

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/workers-investigators-search-for-answers-in-train-derailment-that-killed-three-1.16466300

Will MacKenzie
Dundas, ON

The article states that the accident is being investigated by the RCMP, the Worker's Compensation Board, the Union, and the Company.

Does British Columbia have an equivalent of the federal Transportation Safety Board to investigate such accidents?
Back when BC Rail was an independent provincial railroad, who investigated accidents ?

Thanks.

I believe the Englewood Logging Railway is an industrial railroad under BC rules. I don't think Transport Canada will be involved.

Mike Root
Madras, OR

Marcus Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The article states that the accident is being
> investigated by the RCMP, the Worker's
> Compensation Board, the Union, and the Company.
>
> Does British Columbia have an equivalent of the
> federal Transportation Safety Board to investigate
> such accidents?
> Back when BC Rail was an independent provincial
> railroad, who investigated accidents ?
>
> Thanks.

The Englewood Railway operations are coordinated with logging truck operations using a common dispatcher, which involves all vehicles out in the territory controlled by the logging company. Large over dimensional logging truck called "Mastadons" travel over logging mains, private roads where public traffic is excluded.

When I visited the line thirty years ago, at least one part of the railway, trestles and all had been converted to truck haulage.

When the Government of BC sold BC Hydro Rail and BC Rail, they disbanded their own railway safety branch, except for a single individual who carries out steam locomotive boiler inspections for the "Safety Authority".

Would the cable that broke be holding the cars while loading or would they have been moving the cars with a tractor and cable, or pulley and cable? We don't know from the published info but maybe someone has seen this in the past.

Marcus Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The article states that the accident is being
> investigated by the RCMP, the Worker's
> Compensation Board, the Union, and the Company.
>
> Does British Columbia have an equivalent of the
> federal Transportation Safety Board to investigate
> such accidents?
> Back when BC Rail was an independent provincial
> railroad, who investigated accidents ?

Operations of provincially chartered railways fall under the jurisdiction of the BC Safety Authority, whether for general inspections or incident investigation.

The BCSA came into being on April 1, 2004, created by spinning off various direct branches of the B.C. government, including the Boiler, Gas and Railway Branch of the Safety Engineering Services Division of a particular ministry. It operates at arm's length from government, similar to the Workers Compensation Board.

Since the demise of BC Rail less than four months after BCSA started up, the largest railway operations under the BCSA's authority are Southern Railway of B.C. and SkyTrain, and its staff has been shrunk accordingly. BCSA can contract with Transport Canada and the TSB when matters requiring additional railway expertise are involved. For example, BCSA has brought in Transport Canada for inspections of the E&N line in recent years, but in such cases TC is acting as a contractor and its conclusions are issued under the auspices of BCSA.

The BCSA's role in railway regulation is outlined at https://www.safetyauthority.ca/railways

For further detail, check out https://www.safetyauthority.ca/sites/default/files/accident_or_incident_reporting_guidelines_for_provincial_railways.pdf



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/17 20:28 by railsmith.