Tom Harding, engineer of the runaway train in Quebec, was involved in another derailment last year.

[FarCenter]

34. It seems likely that MMA's policy was to not set handbrakes on the cars -- needs investigation

Soon after the event, Burkhardt came out and blamed the Nantes fire department for causing the runaway by shutting off the running engine. This, he said, caused the air brakes to release and the train to run away.

Therefore, it seems likely that policy within MMA was to not set enough handbrakes on cars to prevent a runaway, but instead to depend on air brakes fed by a running engine. Setting the handbrakes on a large number of cars involves time and labor, which MMA appeared to want to save by cutting corners.

Also, setting handbrakes on cars seems to be more arduous and time consuming than setting the handbrakes on the cars. Setting derailers also is work, especially for one man.

Note that the company's written regulations and the policy informally communicated by management can be two different things, so the RCMP need to intervew MMA employees to get to what the actual mandate by management was, and not just depend on company documents.