Federation of Labour, rail workers union demand investigation into fatal crash

CALGARY (660 NEWS) – The Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) is joining calls from the Teamsters rail union who are demanding an investigation into the deaths of three rail workers last year.

In Feb. 2019, a grain train belonging to Canadian Pacific (CP) crashed near the town of Field B.C.

Calgary engineer Andrew Dockrell, conductor Dylan Paradis and trainee Daniel Waldenberger-Bulmer died in the crash.

RELATED: CP Rail confirms three crew members dead in B.C. grain car derailment

In a release, the AFL and Teamsters reference an investigation by the CBC which found several issues in the crash, including that one of the employees documented the problem with the brakes in cold weather, but was reportedly under pressure from management to keep the trains moving.

“Almost a year later, the deaths of these workers have yet to be fully investigated by an independent body to determine if there is any criminal liability on behalf of CP Rail,” the statement reads. “Rather, CP Police Service, a police service directly employed by CP Rail, conducted a flawed investigation into the deaths.”

The statement goes on to say that when investigators asked for more evidence from the company, CP Rail shut down the investigation and ordered police officers to stop.

“Three of our brothers died in that derailment. If CP has nothing to hide, they should welcome an outside investigation for the sake of the families and all those affected by this disaster,” said President of Teamsters Canada, François Laporte. “It is absurd that a company should be able to criminally investigate itself. They’ll never find themselves guilty of anything.”

In a statement to CityNews, the RCMP said it attended the crash site initially before handing off the full investigation to the Transportation Safety Board who is still looking into the crash.

“The RCMP has the authority to investigate criminal matters in this area and across Canada. In this case, CP Police was the police of jurisdiction and we assisted and did not launch a parallel or concurrent investigation. This is not a unique situation and aligns with other derailment cases in BC. Similar protocols are used in BC for workplace or industrial incidents in which Workplace BC is the POJ and we are available to assist.”

The Transportation Safety Board said the westbound train was parked for two hours near Field when it started rolling on its own.

About 99 cars carrying grain and two locomotives derailed at a curve ahead of a bridge.

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