Rail transportation

Recommendations - Extract from Railway Investigation Report R03V0083, Derailment of Canadian National (CN) freight train, near McBride, British Columbia

In December 2003, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) issued two safety recommendations in advance of the final report. The recommendations focused on the issues of timber bridge maintenance, inspection and safety regulation.

Table 1.

Findings from TSB investigation R17W0267 – December 2017 employee fatality in Melville, Saskatchewan

Investigations conducted by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) are complex since an accident rarely results from a single cause. In the case of the Melville, Saskatchewan, accident on 22 December 2017 several factors led to the uncontrolled movement and employee fatality. The 9 findings below detail the causes and contributing factors that led to this occurrence.

Safety communications related to TSB investigation R17W0267 – December 2017 employee fatality in Melville, Saskatchewan

The occurrence

On 22 December 2017, at about 1800 Central Standard Time during hours of darkness, a Canadian National Railway Company (CN) foreman and a helper were performing switching operations at CN’s Melville Yard in Melville, Saskatchewan.

Common causes of fire in Canada's rail transportation sector^{Footnote 1}

How can a train cause a fire on a railway right-of-way?

• Locomotive exhaust stack fires can occur when diesel fuel is not burned properly or the stack and spark arresters are not cleaned periodically.