Burkhardt puts the blame on its ex-employees

Photo AFP
Edward Burkhardt

Ex-president, MMA

Vincent Larin

Saturday, 20 January, 2018 23:51

UPDATE
Saturday, 20 January, 2018 23:51

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Four years after the tragedy of Lac-Mégantic, the former president of the now-defunct Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, Edward Burkhardt, still believes that the company is not responsible and puts the blame on his ex-employees who have not followed the rules.

“This was not the fault of the infrastructure, it had nothing to do. It was caused by a violation of the laws operating in force, ” said Edward Burkhardt when

The Log was attached to his home in the State of Illinois.

“If we can ensure that employees follow the rules more strictly, then we could reduce the risk of [another accident],” he said.

Yet, the Office of the transportation safety board of Canada (TSB) concluded, in a report, that the poor safety culture of the MMA was one of the causes of the tragedy of Lac-Mégantic.

Severely criticized

Edward Burkhardt had been severely criticized for its handling of the tragedy of Lac-Mégantic in 2013. He had appeared on the scene several days after that. Full press conference, he had suffered the insults of the citizens and the survivors.

Saturday, Mr. Burkhardt was, however, obliged to defend Tom Harding, Jean Demaître and Richard Labrie, who were all three were acquitted by a jury Friday.

Although it is estimated that the derailment was due to their negligence, it does not believe however that the three men deserved the prison.

“The driver made a series of errors that led to the accident, but those mistakes are not criminal in nature, and this is precisely what the jury decided. It was a human error, but it was not premeditated, ” he said.

Blame the government

According to him, it is the whole of the rail industry and the federal government should review their rules to ensure that such a tragedy does not happen again.

Edward Burkhardt also claims to have a thought for the victims of Lac-Mégantic all the days and believes that their loved ones did not want the jury to convict the three former employees of the MMA.