Ghost train explodes, devastates Quebec town

[r16]

What are you even saying?

not much ı am afraid .

 

[r16]

a meh to European copycats . The French will obviously pay -actually have to pay- close attention to the derailment . While an onboard fire on an Ethiopian 787 is good news indeed , when compared to anything in the air . Non-whites are people , too , you know .

news channels reported it was "believed" a third person had died -presumably a baby- as if this is the 19th Century and San Fransisco is in the middle of nowhere . Can understand a delay in the breakdown of casualties in the heat of moment but didn't it take at least half a day to ascertain just many passangers were aboard ? In Korea they don't count people as they walk through the gates ?

anyhow peoples' reputations kinda saved by revelations that it was the US agencies that overran passengers by trucks . A real bad luck , made worse by the fact that the 777 was maybe 25% slower than it should have been , which might have meant as the crew noticed they were coming short they would have corrected it . Up to maybe a super-duper stall in which with a proper entry speed they might have gained enough altitude to wingover and crash 180 degrees off , where the passengers would all burn hanging upside down . Supposedly might have taken 7 months to investigations to be concluded and ı don't have the slightest clue to what might have happened in that 7 months , apart from Boeing wouldn't be delivering a single plane . Takiing a hit in the Stock Market is way better , won't you say ?

 

[Formaldehyde]

It now looks like a brakeman didn't set enough hand brakes.

LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec – The head of the U.S. railway company whose runaway oil train crashed into a Quebec town blamed the engineer Wednesday for failing to set the brakes properly before the train hurtled down a seven-mile (11-kilometer) incline, derailed and ignited a fire that killed at least 15 people and left dozens missing.

He said the engineer has been suspended without pay and was under police supervision.

The startling disclosures from Edward Burkhardt, president and CEO of the railway's parent company, Rail World Inc., came as he encountered sharp criticism from Quebec politicians and jeers from Lac-Megantic residents while making his first visit to the lakeside town where some 60 people remain missing following Saturday's disaster.

Until Wednesday, the railway had defended its employees' actions, but that changed abruptly as Burkhardt singled out the engineer as culpable.

"We think he applied some hand brakes, but the question is, did he apply enough of them?" Burkhardt said. "He said he applied 11 hand brakes. We think that's not true. Initially we believed him, but now we don't."

He said the engineer was "under police control."

"He's not in jail, but police have talked about prosecuting him," the CEO said. "I understand exactly why the police are considering criminal charges ... If that's the case, let the chips fall where they may."

Burkhardt did not name the engineer during his impromptu and sometimes chaotic outdoor news conference, though the company had previously identified the employee as Tom Harding of Quebec and termed him a hero for rushing to the scene and managing to stop some of the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway train's runaway cars. All but one of the 73 cars was carrying oil, and at least five exploded.

Burkhardt, who arrived in town with a police escort, said he had delayed his post-crash visit to Lac-Megantic in order to deal with the crisis from his office in Chicago, saying he was better able to communicate from there with insurers and officials in different places during what he described as 20-hour work days.

"I understand the extreme anger," he said, likening the devastation in Lac-Megantic to a war zone. "We owe an abject apology to the people in this town."

He pledged that his company — which will likely face lawsuits — would work with local officials, relief groups and others to help the community recover.

"There's no question our insurance capabilities will be tested," he said.

After the wrecked cars are cleared away, Burkhardt said the railway would repair the tracks and resume train operations.

"Very carefully, I might tell you," he said.

Asked if he'd build those tracks on the perimeter of the town instead of through it again, he said that was under consideration as a long-term plan.

In an exchange with reporters, Burkhardt defended the practice of leaving trains unmanned, as was the case when the runaway began.

"I don't think it was wrong, but you always look at any accident and you say, 'How could we have done better?'" he said. "And for the future we, and I think probably the rest of the industry, aren't going to be leaving these trains unmanned. We'll take the lead with that. I think the rest of the industry is going to follow."

Among the residents looking on as Burkhardt spoke was Raymond Lafontaine, a prominent local businessman who is believed to have lost a son, two daughters-in-law and an employee in the disaster.

"That man, I feel pity for him," Lafontaine said. "Maybe some who know him properly may think he's the greatest guy in the world, but with his actions, the wait that took place, it doesn't look good."

"If he had come with some people who speak French, if a team had come to see us and, 'Yes, we're here for you and there was an accident, yes, there was human error, yes, this happened,' it seems like that would have hurt less," LaFontaine added. "I would have been able to get through that. But this is inconceivable. I can't accept it."

"If he had come with some people who speak French"? I can certainly understand that many are upset that the CEO took so long to come to the town, but that he or his other spokesmen didn't speak to them in French is even worth mentioning?

 

[emzie]

"If he had come with some people who speak French"? I can certainly understand that many are upset that the CEO took so long to come to the town, but that he or his other spokesmen didn't speak to them in French is even worth mentioning?

Knowing rural Quebec, most of the town probably does not speak English or only speaks it in a rudimentary manner. So the CEO showed up and didn't even take someone with him who could enable him to communicate with the local population? That's a bit daft.

 

[Formaldehyde]

So it's not a "bit daft" for people who live in Canada to not even know English well enough to follow along, or ask someone who does speak English to explain what they couldn't comprehend?

Do you think there should be a law which requires all English speakers in Quebec to provide a translator?

It appears that he wasn't giving a public presentation. He seemed to be just touring the damage and was accosted by members of the press who apparently could speak English.

 

[emzie]

So it's not a "bit daft" for people who live in Canada to not even know English well enough to follow along, or ask someone who does speak English to explain what they couldn't comprehend?

How would that be daft??! French is their native language. It's an official language of Canada. There's no requirement to know both. Why should people have to grab a translator in their own town to explain what a foreign CEO is saying? Do you just enjoy picking pointless fights over the stupidest things imaginable? Take your masochism to another thread if you want. I encourage you to open one about how everyone everywhere should speak English. This is not that thread.

Do you think there should be a law which requires all English speakers in Quebec to provide a translator?

It appears that he wasn't giving a public presentation. He seemed to be just touring the damage and was accosted by members of the press who apparently could speak English.

This isn't about law, it's about PR. PR is a fickle thing, an art if you will. Running your translations through an online translator instead of hiring a professional, and then showing up in the town without the ability to say, through a translator, anything, is horrendous PR.

 

[Formaldehyde]

My "masochism" for merely disagreeing with absurd provincial French-Canadian nonsense?

And, again, he seemingly wasn't there to address the people of the area. He was there to personally see the damage. If he was there to give a speech, I'm sure he would have brought along a translator so those French-Canadians who refused to learn fundamental English wouldn't be so personally offended over absolutely nothing. So take your own "masochism" into a thread about how "fickle" you personally think "PR" might happen to be.

 

[Angst]

 

[emzie]

My "masochism" for merely disagreeing with absurd provincial French-Canadian nonsense?

And, again, he seemingly wasn't there to address the people of the area. He was there to personally see the damage. If he was there to give a speech, I'm sure he would have brought along a translator so those French-Canadians who refused to learn fundamental English wouldn't be so personally offended over absolutely nothing. So take your own "masochism" into a thread about how "fickle" you personally think "PR" might happen to be.

Again, this is not the thread for this. I encourage you to open one... about whatever it is you think.

 

[Formaldehyde]

I'm merely commenting about a puzzling comment in the article I posted which is clearly pertinent to this thread.

Again, I fully agree that he should have shown up far sooner. That he deserves harsh criticism for not being there days ago.

But to borrow your own phrase, to criticize him because he doesn't speak French is more than "a bit daft". If he had convened a meeting for all the people of the town it would have been different if he hadn't provided a translator. But he clearly did not do so. He merely responded to some questions asked of him by the press in English.

 

[emzie]

And I encourage you to open a new thread about language as it relates to Quebec.

 

[Ajidica]

It seems odd for someone to get to an important position in Canada, especially when said position involves doing work in predominantly French-speaking areas, without speaking basic French.

 

[Formaldehyde]

He is the CEO of a railroad holding company located in Illinois that owns railroads and does other rail-oriented business in Canada, United States, Estonia, Poland, and Ukraine. Why should he have to know all those different languages in order to perform his job as CEO?

 

[Tarquelne]

I'm merely commenting about a puzzling comment in the article I posted which is clearly pertinent to this thread.

Oh, that's all. I can explain that.

The guy thought the company should have sent someone to the French-speaking town who speaks French, and - since they hadn't previously - attaching someone to the CEO's party who could talk to the town would not only have been a good idea, but not taking the opportunity to do so was a bit daft. Because the company's train made a big explosion in that town... where they speak French.

But to borrow your own phrase, to criticize him because he doesn't speak French is more than "a bit daft".

I think one of the reasons contre is encouraging you to open a new thread is because it would give someone the chance to criticize the CEO for not speaking French. It has yet to happen in this one. (EDIT: Whoops. Looks like someone just did. I apologize. But, Form, when you criticize statements that are yet to be made could you please make a note to that effect? Others don't share your precog. Some might even think that it was your posts that gave someone an erroneous idea.)

It is true that it's unreasonable for someone to provide a translator for a speech he wasn't planning to give, or to answer public remarks when he hadn't intended on making a public statement. But that's not what the criticism was. It was for NOT planning to make a speech - with French available - and for so half-assing the public statements. Half-assing because it wasn't intended, and it was in a town where they speak French.

The lack of communication is discourteous.[/s] Please excuse them, they're Canadian. They tend to expect a fair degree of courtesy when your train explodes in their town.

This is a continuing source of friction between Canada - where they favor courtesy - and the US, where they favor blowing stuff up.

 

[Formaldehyde]

I think this can be summed up quite easily.

The CEO didn't expect to make a public presentation. He probably didn't even realize that the public would be informed that he would be in the area given the apparent need for a security detail to protect him from possible harm.

At least some of the people in the town thought they were entitled to one.

 

[Evie]

As for the "He was there to inspect the damage". When your train just killed 1/100th of a town's entire population, and forced (at the worst of the catastrophe) a third of the town to be evacuated, you owe that town an explanation, an apology, and a discussion. You owe it to them to show them consideration.

If you come to survey the damage, and refuse to talk to them, that's not consideration.
If you come to them to address them without even bothering to bring a competent translator and insist on speaking to them in a language most of them don't speak, that's not consideration.

"He was just there to survey the damage" may justify the lack of translator, but it hardly make mr. Director look any better. If anything, it makes him look worse. Coming to adress them without a translator could have been chalked to not realizing few of them understood English, or not being able to find one at all. Coming without any intention of talking, shows he couldn't care less about the damage he's done to these people's life.

Factor in that this is the same man who went from "Our engineer is a hero! It was those evil firemen, after putting out a fire, shutting down the engine! THE FIREMEN DID IT!" to (after being soundly roundhouse-kicked over that firs tone), to "Well the engineer must have done it wrong then! THE ENGINEER DID IT!" (This is the same engineer who, after the fact, risked his life to help drag unexploded wagons away from the fire). So a master finger-pointer, with an obsessino for pointing at people who are, generally, infinitely more admirable than he is.

And that his visit to the scene occured five days or so after the disaster, while refusing to show up previously.

And one way or another, trying to defend him as a respectable human being really doesn't look good.

But hey, don't let logic get in the way of a good old francophobic spiel about how Quebecers should all "Speak White".

 

[Bowsling]

Every time I see that guy talk I wonder how it is possible for someone so ineloquent, brusque, ad just downright rude to become a CEO.

 

[Cutlass]

Every time I see that guy talk I wonder how it is possible for someone so ineloquent, brusque, ad just downright rude to become a CEO.

That's how you get to be a CEO.

 

[Evie]

There was a study about sociopathy (or was it psychopathy?) and CEOs, wasn't there?

I think we've got a clear example here.

 

[Formaldehyde]

And one way or another, trying to defend him as a respectable human being really doesn't look good.

Does that actually strike you what I'm doing here?

Again, I fully agree that he should have shown up far sooner. That he deserves harsh criticism for not being there days ago.

The CEO didn't expect to make a public presentation. He probably didn't even realize that the public would be informed that he would be in the area given the apparent need for a security detail to protect him from possible harm.

At least some of the people in the town thought they were entitled to one.

But hey, don't let logic get in the way of a good old francophobic spiel about how Quebecers should all "Speak White".

"But hey", don't let what I actually posted stop you from engaging in Anglophobic nonsense while deliberately misrepresenting my opinions merely because you disagree with my personal opinions.