Lake Megantic Quebec - The runaway freight train that caused Canada's deadliest postwar rail disaster passed four safety inspections on its final trip, records show.
 
Details of the 2013 Lake Megantic wreck are cited in Quebec Superior Court documents.
 
According to Blacklock's Reporter, the repeated safety checks were documented in an Agreed Statement Of Facts submitted by lawyers for Canadian Pacific Railway (CP), insurers, and others.
 
"The defendant Canadian Pacific has no legal responsibility for this tragic accident," wrote Justice Martin Bureau.
 
Forty-seven people died when a runaway Montreal Maine & Atlantic (MMA) freight carrying 48,000 barrels of oil jackknifed in a fiery derailment.
 
It was "one of the worst railway tragedies in Canadian history," said Superior Court.
 
The accident occurred on a Canadian Pacific line.

The line was not owned by CP at the time of the derailment.

The freight at the time was carrying 78 cars of petroleum from North Dakota to an Irving Oil Ltd. refinery in Saint John.
 
From its departure on 30 Jun 2013 the train was safety inspected in North Dakota.
 
One tank car was removed for mechanical defects.
 
A second inspection was conducted 4 Jul 2013 by Department of Transport staff in Toronto.
 
A day later, on 5 Jul 2013, employees for CP conducted another safety inspection in Montreal, removing five tank cars for defects.
 
A fourth inspection was completed 5 Jul 2013 at Farnham, Quebec.
 
Minor defects were "immediately corrected on site," the Court noted.
 
The train was left unmanned for the night at Nantes, Quebec, when air brakes on the lead locomotive slowly lost pressure, sending the freight rolling 12 kilometres downhill to Lake Megantic.

Due to a fire, firefighters shut-down the locomotive, resulting in the loss of brake pipe pressure causing the train to roll downhill into Lake Megantic with the subsequent derailment and fire.

Investigators determined the freight was speeding at 105 kilometres an hour, three times the limit, when it derailed and burst into flames, razing some 40 homes and businesses while townspeople slept.
 
The disaster bankrupted the MMA railway.
 
The lone engineer was acquitted of criminal wrongdoing and received $237,188 in a 2019 wrongful dismissal claim.
 
The disaster prompted numerous railway safety reforms including a ban on one-person crews freighting hazardous goods, elimination of puncture-prone tank cars, and higher minimum insurance coverage by railway companies.

Have puncture-prone tank cars really been eliminated?

MMA at the time of the wreck was carrying $25 million in liability coverage, the legal minimum under federal law.
 
Claims against the railway were $250 million.
 
A Lake Megantic compensation fund totaled $430 million.
 
Parliament amended the Canada Transportation Act to raise minimum insurance requirements for railways shipping oil tank cars to up to $125 million or more.
 
Oil shippers were also mandated to pay a $1.65 per tonne fee to finance a Fund For Railway Accidents Involving Designated Goods.
 
Matthew Horwood.