RWU
News & Information Service
Rail Workers Weekly News Digest
Special Bulletin
Number 4 - January 28th, 2020
Breaking news on this important subject requires that we present this as a Special Supplement to the regular Rail Workers Weekly Digest #4.
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Railroad Under Fire as Questions Abound Concerning 2019 Runaway Train that Killed Three Crew Members

On February 4th, 2019, Canadian Pacific Train #301 rolled away down Field Hill in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada. The train's lead locomotive, mid-train DPU and 99 cars of grain derailed, killing all three crew members aboard. Now, as the anniversary of that tragic wreck approaches, family members, co-workers and the general public are demanding answers. The Canadian news media is awash with the news of the wreck, and evidence seems to point to a cover-up by the railroad. Charges of negligence by CP are coming forward.

Following six months of investigative reporting, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) released its finding on nationwide television Sunday evening, January 26th, when the award-winning news program " The Fifth Estate " aired the 22-minute episode.

Following allegations of a cover-up by the Canadian Pacific Police Service (CPPS) in relation to the Field derailment, the Teamster Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) union is calling for an independent investigation into the deadly rail disaster. The union is also reiterating its call for the federal government to abolish corporate police forces like that at CP.

The lead safety investigator looking into the fatal runaway crash of a Canadian Pacific Railway freight train last February at the Spiral Tunnels near Field, B.C., says the RCMP should step in to investigate potential negligence by the railway company.

Click on the links ( red buttons ) below to learn more about this breaking story. Just what did happen? Did the railroad compromise the safety of its employees? Do the same unsafe conditions exist today? Why have ten railroaders been killed in Canada in the last two years? These are questions that all railroad workers and their families want and demand answers to.
A loaded grain train of 112 cars with three locomotives - one on the head-end, one mid-train, and one at the rear - had been stopped and was in "emergency" on the steep mountain grade. Incredulously, there was no regulation nor railroad rule to mandate the use of handbrakes. The train sat for 2 hours. The doomed "relief crew" arrived by van to take charge of the train, relieving the crew. Upon boarding the lead locomotive, the train began to roll, the air brakes having "bled off" while standing in the sub-zero temperatures.
On Friday, this segment aired on the Calgary, Alberta morning radio show, a glimpse at what would come on CBC Sunday.
This 22- minute Episode was viewed by the nation on Sunday. MUST SEE!
'I was ordered to stop investigating' the Feb. 4, 2019, crash. 'I would say it was some type of coverup.'
'Their bottom line, to keep the trains rolling no matter what, killed my son and his crew mates'
In the past two years, ten Canadian Railroaders have been killed on the job. All but one worked for either Canadian National or Canadian Pacific.
CBC's investigation has found that the Field Hill in the Canadian Rockies has been the scene of  25 derailments and runaways in the last 25 years ....
The three CP workers killed in the Feb 4th, 2019 runaway train wreck. (Left to Right) Trainee Daniel Waldenberger-Bulmer; Engineer Andrew Dockrell; Conductor Dylan Paradis.