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Photo by pascal huot
Photo taken Saturday

Dominique Lelièvre

Saturday, 20 January, 2018 22:54

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Saturday, 20 January, 2018 22:54

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LAC-MÉGANTIC | It will take more than one trial to relieve the Méganticois of the trauma caused by the train murderer, who has ripped 47 lives there are four and a half years.

In the aftermath of the acquittal of the three ex-employees who had borne the train of the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway (MMA), July 6, 2013, the outcome of the trial was still a topic of debate in Lac-Mégantic. However, an issue came back again in the discussions : the bypass route.

The passage of trains in the heart of the city centre has taken four months after the tragic events, and it never ceases to scare many citizens since. The acquittal of the three accused and the answers given during the trial will not change, have underlined in broad strokes, on Saturday, several of them.

“As long as the train travels through the inside of the city, the people remain in fear, they remain traumatized by the passage of trains, denounces Robert Bellefleur, who is campaigning for the path of convoys have to be adjusted. It prevents the construction of new shops, that night with a feeling of confidence, ” he says.

In the absence of change, Lac-Mégantic is “on the artificial respirator,” says the one who is spokesman for Coalition committed citizen for a safety rail.

Photo archive

Photo taken 10 days after the tragedy

“Beautiful promises “

In visit to Quebec city last week, the prime minister Justin Trudeau reiterated that the government was ” working on it “. “Still beautiful promises “, replica Richard Poirier, another member of the Coalition.

The resident has lost several friends in the evening where everything changed. For him, there is no doubt that another disaster could happen in the current state of things. “The note of death, as it is called, is even more pronounced than it was. It has the same slope. They put trains in the same place. Then tomorrow morning, another train may be from the drift, ” he says, sitting at a table with his grandson at the Musi-Café.

“The rest of us, we have children, grandchildren, and I don’t mean they live the same situation that was experienced “, lance-t-il.

A bypass to avoid the centre of town is desired by citizens. The ride, which is currently under study.

The mayor welcomes its citizens

In addition, the mayor of Lac-Mégantic has paid tribute to the response “very mature” of its citizens in the debate highly emotional that shakes.

“What happened in Lac-Mégantic, this is not easy and it continues daily,” pointed out Julie Morin.

— With the QMI Agency

Questions without answers

Photo Dominique Lelièvre

“For us, the trial […] is limited to very advanced on the number of hand brakes required to stop a train [but] it has not stopped, on how to identify the oil, which had organised the transport. We did not know either how the MMA was able to obtain a waiver to implement a single guy as the driver, or why Transport Canada gave a company to park a train up an incline without any monitoring, the engine and open the doors débarrées. “

— Robert Bellefleur (right), the Coalition committed citizen for a rail safety in Lac-Mégantic.