Justice Martin Bureau, a Quebec judge, has ruled that Canadian Pacific is not liable for the Lac-Mégantic derailment that killed 47 people. Canadian Pacific was sued by three residents who lost family in the accident. In the lawsuit, the family claimed the railroad misclassified crude oil and was aware that the train operator, Montreal Maine & Atlantic, chose an unsafe route to transport the crude oil.
Justice Bureau determined that the actions the railroad was accused of were not the “direct, immediate and logical cause” of the fatal derailment on July 6, 2013. He went on to say that the responsibility for the derailment rested on the train engineer’s shoulders. The engineer, Thomas Harding, went on trial in 2018 but was found not guilty on all charges.
Judge rules Canadian Pacific is not liable in Lac-Mégantic disaster
