Transportation Safety Board watch list

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A Federal watchdog says Transport Canada is dragging its heels when it comes to addressing safety risks. The Transportation Safety Board released its watch list this morning with the most pressing safety issues in the transportation sector and the watchdog says travelers are being put at risk.

It’s been over a decade since an Air France plane overshot a runway at Pearson International Airport and caught on fire. Yet, Transport Canada is still reviewing recommendations from that crash and says runway safety is still a problem at major airports.

“Sometimes they’ve been, maybe, just a few feet off with minor damage. Other times they have been quite far off, so the risk always exists.” said Kathy Fox from the Transportation Safety Board.

There are 52 recommendations that have been outstanding for more than 10 years and over half of them date back more than 20 years.

The chair of the board wants the back log cleared.

That was one of two new recommendations issued by the board this morning. The other was addressing the issue of fatigue on freight train operators.

“A local motive engineer may finish work at midnight one night and gets to sleep through the night. Then the next shift, ends up finishing up at 10 in the morning and has to sleep during the day.”

The board has conducted over 90 rail investigations.

“About 20% of those had a fatigue element to it, so we felt there is a systemic enough risk with the way freight train crews are being scheduled.” said Fox.

According to the Transportation Safety board, between 2004 and 2013 there was an average of 30 incidences a year in which a train crew did not properly follow a railway signal.

In 2012 a VIA train was going four times faster than it was allowed before it jumped the tracks in Burlington, killing three people and injuring 46.

“When you are talking about railroads you are really talking about low probability of accidents, but high consequence events.”

Transportation expert Manish Verma says the Lac Megantic rail is a perfect example.

Transport Minister Marc Garneau says safety is his top priority and will look carefully at the issues raised in the watch list.

His office has three months to respond to the recommendations.