Ghost train explodes, devastates Quebec town

[Quintillus]

Reminds me of this ghost train incident. Could it be that the air brakes were disabled because it was parked overnight?

 

[Evie]

Current speculation (by which I mean: what the company currently claim) is that there was a fire in one of the locomotives overnight at the train station it was parked at. Firemen came, took care of it, and apparently in the course of so doing the engine of the locomotive was shut down, thereby disabling the air brakes.

That sounds, of course, suspiciously like the train company trying to shift the blame to the firemen.

Or, if we trust the french version of their press release on the issue (addressed to, you know, their french-speaking victims), the fire brigade destroyed the work-machine of the puller, and the stoppers continued not working resulting in the vehicle gliding along a false rail."

(In other word, they had the nerves to hire a mr. G. Translate to write a version of their press release in the language of the victims of the crash. P.R. Fail.

 

[Borachio]

Or, if we trust the french version of their press release on the issue (addressed to, you know, their french-speaking victims), the fire brigade destroyed the work-machine of the puller, and the stoppers continued not working resulting in the vehicle gliding along a false rail."

(In other word, they had the nerves to hire a mr. G. Translate to write a version of their press release in the language of the victims of the crash. P.R. Fail.

French really isn't that hard to learn, surely? Even I'd not garble it that badly.

Do you have "the fire brigade destroyed the work-machine of the puller, and the stoppers continued not working resulting in the vehicle gliding along a false rail" in French?

 

[Evie]

Oh, that wasn't me translating. That was me giving an example of how bad their text was.

This is the French text, for those with enough of a grasp of french to gape at how bad a translation it was :

"For immediate release" indeed.

Pour la libération immédiate : Daté : Dimanche 7 juillet 2013 : 16H15 EST

Chemin de fer Montréal, Maine et Atlantique (MMA)

Le 6 juillet 2013 Déraillement à Lac-Mégantic, Québec (Mise à jour)

Le Chemin de fer Montréal, Maine et Atlantique souhaite fournir des informations actualisées sur tragique accident de train d'hier à Lac-Mégantic, Québec.

On nous avise que les feux soient grandement éteints et il semble que le brigade de sapeurs-pompiers finira cette partie de leur tâche bientôt. Les autorités provinciales et fédérales ont pris le contrôle du secteur de déraillement, et le personnel MMA n'ont pas été en mesure d'entrer à poursuivre leur enquête sur la cause et à planifier les opérations de récupération.

Il y a une douzaine de représentants MMA à portée de main dans Lac- Mégantic, avec plus d'arriver continuellement. Beaucoup se sont trouvés présent depuis hier après-midi, malgré les déclarations que les gens de MMA n'ont pas été disponibles. MMA a mis en place un centre de commande dans le Bâtiment Municipal.

Disponible aussi est Yves Bourdon, MMA membre du conseil, qui sera la «voix de la MMA» dans le traitement des élus municipaux, provinciaux et fédéral, le personnel d'urgence, les organisations humanitaires et les personnes touchées et les propriétaires fonciers. Également sur place est Robert Grindrod, président et chef de la direction de MMA.

Personnel MMA sont en train de s'organiser pour faire face aux besoins immédiats des habitants et d'établir un processus pour le dépôt et le traitement des réclamations.. MMA a l'intention de faire tout son possible pour faire face aux dommages subis. MMA a été en contact avec les organismes de secours de la Croix-Rouge locale et d'offrir son aide en fournissant hébergement, la nourriture et d'autres nécessités, et est prêt à faire face en tête-à-tête avec les résidents pour répondre à leurs besoins. Nous aviserons les numéros de téléphone dès que nous le pouvons.

Alors que l'enquête publique de la cause de l'accident a largement empêché MMA de terminer sa propre enquête, un fait qui a émergé est la locomotive du train de pétrole garé à la Station Nantes a été fermé ultérieur au départ de l'ingénieur qui avait manipulé le train de Farnham, qui a pu avoir eu comme conséquence la libération des freins à air sur la locomotive qui jugeait le train en place.

Comme mentionné ci-dessus, nous n'avons pas de renseignements complets concernant cet incident, mais nous allons coopérer avec autorités gouvernementales comme ils continuent leur enquête. Pour améliorer nos communications, le présent communiqué de presse et les messages à venir sera également publié en français.

MMA personnes demeurent dans un état de choc au cours de cet incident et se sont engagés à aider nos voisins à Lac-Megantic, de faire un rétablissement complet aussi rapidement que possible. Nos pensées et nos prières sont avec ceux qui ont subi un préjudice et perdu des membres de la famille.

 

[Borachio]

Hmm. I don't understand you then. That doesn't look like a google translate mangle to me.

Though "avec plus d'arriver continuellement" doesn't seem natural. Or particularly understandable.

Still, my French is very rusty, and never all that good in the first place.

edit: ah yes "pour la liberation immediate" can't be right.

 

[Evie]

LOTS of that is not natural. EVEN not discussing at length all the problems with putting le/la/les de/de la/des, etc where they shouldn't be, and not putting them where they should be (and I think they flunked more of those than they got right), there are some pretty egregious mistakes in there.

Pour la libération immédiate : Daté : Dimanche 7 juillet 2013 : 16H15 EST

"Pour la libération immédiate" is a literal translation of "For immediate release". It REALLY doesn't mean that in French. In effect they're telling us "For immediate prison release".

Even Google Translate get that one right ("Pour diffusion immédiate").

Chemin de fer Montréal, Maine et Atlantique (MMA)

Le 6 juillet 2013 Déraillement à Lac-Mégantic, Québec (Mise à jour)

Le Chemin de fer Montréal, Maine et Atlantique souhaite fournir des informations actualisées sur tragique accident de train d'hier à Lac-Mégantic, Québec.

Actualisées is rarely used that way.

On nous avise que les feux soient grandement éteints et il semble que le brigade de sapeurs-pompiers finira cette partie de leur tâche bientôt.

"soient" is the wrong tense altogether ; "grandements éteints" is a direct translation of "largely extinguished" and again it's a construct wholly unnatural to French. The equivalent going the other way would be "In great part extinguished". "La brigade de sapeurs-pompiers" while technically accurate is a phrasing almost never used in Quebec French. Again, Google translate would have doen a better job in suggesting to use simply "Les pompiers"

Les autorités provinciales et fédérales ont pris le contrôle du secteur de déraillement, et le personnel MMA n'ont pas été en mesure d'entrer à poursuivre leur enquête sur la cause et à planifier les opérations de récupération.

"Entrer à poursuivre leur enquête" is not a French phrasing. Neither is "à planifier les oprations de récupération".

Il y a une douzaine de représentants MMA à portée de main dans Lac- Mégantic, avec plus d'arriver continuellement.

As you said, "avec plus d'arriver continuellement" is not French.

Beaucoup se sont trouvés présent depuis hier après-midi, malgré les déclarations que les gens de MMA n'ont pas été disponibles. MMA a mis en place un centre de commande dans le Bâtiment Municipal.

"se sont trouvé présent depuis hier après-midi" is a completely unnatural turn of phrase.

Disponible aussi est Yves Bourdon, MMA membre du conseil qui sera la «voix de la MMA» dans le traitement des élus municipaux, provinciaux et fédéral, le personnel d'urgence, les organisations humanitaires et les personnes touchées et les propriétaires fonciers. Également sur place est Robert Grindrod, président et chef de la direction de MMA.

The bits about both mr. Bourdon and Grindrod are just plain...what? The words are right, but they're in completely nonsensical orders. Basically they're saying "Also is available Yves Bourdon, Council Member MMA". and "On location also is Robert Grindrod"

"Traitement des élus municipaux" is...uh not REALLY a French phrasing either.

Personnel MMA sont en train de s'organiser pour faire face aux besoins immédiats des habitants et d'établir un processus pour le dépôt et le traitement des réclamations.. MMA a l'intention de faire tout son possible pour faire face aux dommages subis. MMA a été en contact avec les organismes de secours de la Croix-Rouge locale et d'offrir son aide en fournissant hébergement, la nourriture et d'autres nécessités, et est prêt à faire face en tête-à-tête avec les résidents pour répondre à leurs besoins. Nous aviserons les numéros de téléphone dès que nous le pouvons.

Here we have "is willing to deal one on one with citizens..." to what essentially means "is willing to confront privately citizens...". (and I'm generous with privately; "tête à tête" has strong connotation of an intimate setting). Honestly it comes off as the Mafia talking about horse heads and proposals that cannot be refused.

Alors que l'enquête publique de la cause de l'accident a largement empêché MMA de terminer sa propre enquête, un fait qui a émergé est la locomotive du train de pétrole garé à la Station Nantes a été fermé ultérieur au départ de l'ingénieur qui avait manipulé le train de Farnham, qui a pu avoir eu comme conséquence la libération des freins à air sur la locomotive qui jugeait le train en place.

Wrong words galore. Aside from all the articles, two huge ones that stick out are turning "who handled the train from farnham" (English) into "who manipulated the Farnham train" (French), and "the air brakes HOLDING the train in place" to "The air brakes JUDGING the train in place". (I get how "handled" became "manipulated". I don't get how "holding" became "judging")

Comme mentionné ci-dessus, nous n'avons pas de renseignements complets concernant cet incident, mais nous allons coopérer avec autorités gouvernementales comme ils continuent leur enquête. Pour améliorer nos communications, le présent communiqué de presse et les messages à venir sera également publié en français.

MMA personnes demeurent dans un état de choc au cours de cet incident et se sont engagés à aider nos voisins à Lac-Megantic, de faire un rétablissement complet aussi rapidement que possible. Nos pensées et nos prières sont avec ceux qui ont subi un préjudice et perdu des membres de la famille.

Aside from plentiful articles and verb issues, that one is...mostly tolerable.

 

[emzie]

...you're actually right. I just ran it through Google translate and Google Translate actually did a BETTER job.

Google translate does a pretty decent job. It would be a pretty simple thing to run your release through it and have one of your French-speaking staff polish it. Surely they have French-speaking staff

 

[Evie]

In other news, the MMA president has officially decided he know who'S guilty: the firemen who put out a first fire on his train and who shut the locomotive to do so.

Because, obviously, knowing this would turn off the brakes was the firemen's job, and making sure they had competent people watching over their train overnight while they left it stuck there was not the company's job.

What a despicable excuse for a human being.

 

[Bowsling]

What the hell is a sapeur-pompier? Do they have firemen specially trained to dig holes that are organised in brigades in Quebec? I mean, I didn't think the construction industry was that shady...

EDIT: Was not expecting that crosspost. That's truly awful. I hope this company is held accountable after a proper government investigation.

 

[Evie]

Sapeur-pompier is a term mostly used in France, dating back from earlier times when one of the few things the firefighters could do to prevent a fire from spreading was tear down neighboring houses.

It's NOT used in Quebec (and I don't think it's even that common in France). They're simply "Les pompiers" to us.

 

[danjuno]

CBC put the body count at 13 + 37 missing.

 

[Evie]

Very likely to keep goign up. And the citizens of the town feel that 30-40 missing was a highly conservative estimate to begin with.

 

[Borachio]

LOTS of that is not natural.

Yeah. Well, that should be an object lesson for everyone. Translation should really only happen from a foreign language to a maternal one, and not vice versa. Unless one is bilingual.

(You'd have thought a Canadian railway company would know that.)

----------------------------------------

All of which makes the achievement of non-native English speakers posting here truly impressive.

 

[Evie]

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=81581

NASA pictures of what Mégantic normally looks like at night, and what it looked like that night.

 

[emzie]

I think I really did pass a proper Canadian threshold recently. I'm annoyed that all the US media is talking about is a plane crash that killed 2 people.

In other news, the MMA president has officially decided he know who'S guilty: the firemen who put out a first fire on his train and who shut the locomotive to do so.

Because, obviously, knowing this would turn off the brakes was the firemen's job, and making sure they had competent people watching over their train overnight while they left it stuck there was not the company's job.

What a despicable excuse for a human being.

Everyone is saying if that's the case, the company eff'd up by keeping it parked with airbrakes in the first place, for the specific reason that they fail if the engine goes off.

Very likely to keep goign up. And the citizens of the town feel that 30-40 missing was a highly conservative estimate to begin with.

More than 1% of the town.

 

[emzie]

OTTAWA - Transport Canada says there are no rules against leaving an unlocked, unmanned, running locomotive and its flammable cargo on a main rail line uphill from a populated centre.

I think this is like rules banning cattle prods from being brought onto an airplane. We needed such a rule?

 

[SouthernKing]

ahha , a field day for the tin-foil brigade . Al Crusading (Jazeera to sane people ) had it only one confirmed dead . Immediately followed by the plane crash in San Fransisco , which at least can be explained its pilots hitting this sea wall at the end of runway .

and since it must be highly expected of me to mention stuff in Turkey regardless of whether on topic or not , a certain TV channel reported two people "murdered" . Now in Turkish , you immediately differentiate between two people who were killed in an accident and two killed by other people . It's not yet clear if they mean that the US Goverment -fearful of its weapon test gone awry- had to kill two Chinese teenagers (since everybody surviving would certainly make it a weapon test) or that TV Channel is planning to mock people who watch with extreme prejudice by misleading them or Facepook will henceforth will permaban any anti-Goverment Turkish user ; although their executive appears to have changed planes at the last minute .

for the tin-foil brigade and history , ı believe a Turkmen satellite channel out of Iraq had a movie with kids getting a train runaway by mistake that night ...

What are you even saying?

 

[emzie]

Link to video.

 

[Evie]

Per CNN, and several Canadian media outlet, Police now consider that they have evidence of criminal conduct.

Though it COULD just be criminal neglect.

 

[Cutlass]

I was thinking that the location of this place looked familiar. I think I've been through there. The rail line runs through the north of Maine as a shortcut between Quebec and Nova Scotia. 50 miles from a town where I still have family.