The article is one of the longest yet published about Ed Burkhardt since the Lac-Megantic disaster. It begins with a description of the Weyauwega disaster in Wisconsin, and then cheekily segues into a quote from Burkhardt;
I have never been involved with anything remotely approaching this in my whole life.
This is beyond disingenuous. What he means is he's never had an accident with this death toll. The more you read about Weyauwega the more you realize that the only reason it didn't have a death toll even greater than Lac-Megantic is shear dumb luck.
The article tells us several times that one of the big differences between then and now is that the Wisconsin train had a two-man crew. Here is Paul S. Bodine writing at Answer.com;
On March 4, 1996, a one-crew Wisconsin Central locomotive entering the center of Weyauwega, Wisconsin (midway between Appleton and Stevens Point, Wisconsin) derailed, sending 34 cars off the tracks, 14 of which were loaded with propane or liquefied petroleum.
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/wisconsin-central-transportation-corporation#ixzz2ZipMZSyH
In the event, Wisconsin officials were sufficiently concerned with Burkhardt's infatuation with understaffed trains that they made the issue an integral part of an agreement between the Federal Railroad Administration and Burkhardt's company.
Most of the article is a kid-glove treatment of Burkardt and the straight-faced reportage of his self-serving quotes and those of former business associates.
We are repeatedly assured that Ed Burkhardt cares about safety, he really does... even though his entire career has been about relentless cost-cutting and he has been dogged by safety issues for two decades.
Sounds like Fast Eddie has hired himself a PR firm!
Showing posts with label MMA disaster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MMA disaster. Show all posts
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Friday, July 19, 2013
Federal officials working overtime to cover their butts on train disaster
Edward Burkhardt isn't the only one doing the 'tain't-my-fault boogie in the wake of the Lac Megantic disaster.
Have a look at the regulators who gave the thumbs up every time Burkhardt found another corner to cut.
Oh golly, now they are concerned about his insurance coverage?
And oh my goodness, you don't mean that there is a remote ever-so-tiny possibility that the TAXPAYER could end up on the hook?
While the sentiments expressed are cleverly engineered to arouse contempt for the railway and sympathy for the regulators, the fact is, this is how it usually works in Canada.
The highly efficient private sector rapes the land/forests/waters what have you, and when the plundering is done and the efficient private sector is long gone, the tax-payer moves in to clean up the mess.
Who remembers Peggy Witte and the Royal Oak Mines saga?
There was a time when you couldn't open a business paper in Canada without reading some obsequious testimonial to the woman who had fought her way to the top in the macho world 'o mining.
She was the "woman of the year" here and the "miner of the year" there and by God you couldn't turn around without bumping into a half dozen stories about what a genius Peggy Witte was.
Peggy is long long gone but the Canadian taxpayer is still cleaning up her mess.
It's actually worse than that; if you read the story through you realize that for a billion dollars of taxpayer money, we're not actually cleaning up the mess, but merely deferring the cleanup.
So don't be taken in by the self-serving cries of alarm coming from the regulators.
The taxpayer always foots the bill after the efficient private sector geniuses have skipped town.
Have a look at the regulators who gave the thumbs up every time Burkhardt found another corner to cut.
Oh golly, now they are concerned about his insurance coverage?
And oh my goodness, you don't mean that there is a remote ever-so-tiny possibility that the TAXPAYER could end up on the hook?
While the sentiments expressed are cleverly engineered to arouse contempt for the railway and sympathy for the regulators, the fact is, this is how it usually works in Canada.
The highly efficient private sector rapes the land/forests/waters what have you, and when the plundering is done and the efficient private sector is long gone, the tax-payer moves in to clean up the mess.
Who remembers Peggy Witte and the Royal Oak Mines saga?
There was a time when you couldn't open a business paper in Canada without reading some obsequious testimonial to the woman who had fought her way to the top in the macho world 'o mining.
She was the "woman of the year" here and the "miner of the year" there and by God you couldn't turn around without bumping into a half dozen stories about what a genius Peggy Witte was.
Peggy is long long gone but the Canadian taxpayer is still cleaning up her mess.
It's actually worse than that; if you read the story through you realize that for a billion dollars of taxpayer money, we're not actually cleaning up the mess, but merely deferring the cleanup.
So don't be taken in by the self-serving cries of alarm coming from the regulators.
The taxpayer always foots the bill after the efficient private sector geniuses have skipped town.
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