The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday, June 23, edition that questions hover over the fate of a $430-million settlement fund for victims' families of the Lac-Megantic rail disaster. The Globe's Eric Atkins and Verity Stevenson write that Canadian Pacific Railway, which hauled the oil from North Dakota to Montreal before handing it over to Montreal, Maine & Atlantic, is the lone party to refuse to contribute to the fund. CP argued in a Quebec court last week it played no part in the disaster. It said the provincial court has no jurisdiction on the matter. If CP is successful, the payouts to victims' families could be delayed by years.
Governments and transport regulators in Canada and the United States responded to the disaster by implementing tougher safety regulations for dangerous-goods trains, including phasing out older tank cars and imposing lower speed limits.
Ali Asgary, a professor of emergency preparedness at Toronto's York University, said regulators have taken important steps to make rail transport of dangerous goods safer but more needs to be done. He said railways' safety plans should face more government scrutiny.
"Human error is just one element that contributes to derailments."
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