Canada train blast tragedy : Run away train incident

Have you seen movie "Unstoppable"?

Its a Danzel Washington's must watch thriller movie. The movie is about a train that starts running with out an engine driver on full throttle.  To add to that, the train is carrying very deadly chemical that could blow and turn a whole city into ruins with in seconds. It is loosely based on some real life incident.I have watched this movie many a times. It might be little exaggerated in the movie the way they tried to avoid the train from derailing even over sharp turns. It is an otherwise interesting movie to watch. Back then I did tried to estimate the consequences just in case it derails and explodes in the heart of a city.  Unfortunately, I got my answer yesterday. I don't know if it was a coincidence or deliberate attempt to cash in by one of the TV channels, but they aired this movie yesterday. I came across this movie while surfing through channels just before I read the news of blast in Canada because of running away train carrying crude oil.

If you follow the news, the train was parked at a point uphill. Sources say, the engineer had just finished his duty. He did every thing as per the rule books before leaving the train. What happened next, no body knows. How the train got released is a question every body related to this incident will keep asking for a long time. Since it was parked uphill, as soon as it was released, it started rushing downhill towards the center of the city. Since it was moving downhills with no resistance of any kind, it went on gaining the pace as it was reaching the city center. High speed led to derailment and train cars caught fire, converting in to explosions.

Till last Friday, Lac-Magnetic was a city/town hardly known to any body. But one horrific incident brought the city on global map. To add to the grieve, it was a week end and all the bars in the center of the city were crowded till late night. Had it been other day, probably the casualty might have been little less. The explosions were so big that people for a moment imagined it to be from some Hollywood movie. Burning train cars were flying in the air. Buildings collapsing and explosions taking place as people tried to run for their lives. People came across things that movie "Unstoppable" did not showed.

It was a tragic incident and many people have lost their lives. It will be difficult to understand what led to this incident. If even after taking tall the necessary precaution, such incidents are happening, then how do bring control on it. The only way to avoid such situations is to think about more safer modes of transportation for such explosive chemicals and oils. But unfortunately it seems it needs an accident of this kind to open our eyes and take any decisive step.
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