Harding had already been accused of applying too much brakes

Photo by caroline lepage
Thomas Harding, the driver of the train

Caroline Lepage

Thursday, 5 October 2017 14:34

UPDATE
Thursday, 5 October 2017 14:34

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SHERBROOKE | Thomas Harding had been criticism in the past by an officer of the MMA because he applied too much brake to the locomotives. He also had the order to park his convoy of oil in the main railway to Nantes, it was learnt on Thursday morning.

Me Thomas Walsh, the lawyer for Harding, was vigorously cross-examined on Thursday, the one who headed the investigation of the Sûreté du Québec, Mathieu Bouchard. Harding and two other former employees, Jean Demaitre and Richard Labrie are facing charges of criminal negligence causing the death of the 47 victims of Lac-Mégantic on July 6, 2013.

Mr. Bouchard is defended in front of the 14 members of the jury, at the courthouse of Sherbrooke, that the investigation of the SQ had been conducted in depth. The investigators moved about five times in the United States to question 31 employees of the MMA, with the collaboration of police authorities in the u.s., such as the FBI. No less than 53 000 computer files were seized and analyzed.

“Our priority was to have the truth about this tragedy,” said Mr. Bouchard.

Issues at the heart of the dispute

Yet, Mr. Walsh asked him if he remembered an email from the leader of the MMA, where he blamed the train driver Thomas Harding to apply too much brake automatic. The company also asked to turn off the motor of the locomotive, in the summer, to conserve fuel.

In addition, the prosecutor asked the investigator if he knew why the technology to enable an emergency brake application on the locomotive 5017, which took fire in Nantes before the oil train ran away, July 6, 2013, was not functional.

He also cross-examined Mr. Bouchard if he was informed, when he met the responsible of the maintenance of the trains of the company, in Maine, why the piston that was still defective locomotive 5017, the night of the derailment, had been badly repaired.

To Me Walsh was also informed if Mr. Bouchard had investigated to understand why the oil transported in the tank cars that drove Harding when the tragedy was far more volatile than those identified, without which, the explosion in Lac-Mégantic would never have known this magnitude.

“There has been a labeling problem,” admitted the investigator.

For Me Walsh, the fact that these issues, which seem to be at the heart of the dispute, have not all been clarified him to believe that the police investigation was headed from the beginning that the three accused are scapegoats.