A major train derailment near Wadena, Sask., that has left smouldering railcars and potentially toxic smoke has again raised concerns among insurers over the safety of transporting hazardous materials by rail.
The CN Rail derailment happened Tuesday about 20 kilometres west of the town of 1,300, which is located about 230 kilometres east of Saskatoon. According to CBC News, authorities on the scene are keeping people back eight kilometres from the railcars over fears that the smoke from the wreckage may be toxic.
“It's huge,” Alison Squires, editor of the Wadena News, told CBC News describing what she saw shortly after the derailment. “It's taller than a (grain) elevator.”
About 50 people were evacuated from Clair, a small community about one kilometre from the crash, along with others in farm homes in the area. Students at the school in Wadena were being kept indoors during the school day.
The province released a statement that a rapid response team made up of emergency management and fire safety experts had been sent to the scene along with specialized air quality monitoring equipment from the Environment Ministry.
“Environment (officials) will be monitoring air quality in the area,” the statement said. “They will be working with CN and the local officials as part of a co-ordinated response.”
Rail safety and the coverage required came to the forefront in July of last year, when a train derailment and subsequent explosion levelled the downtown area of Lac-Megantic, a Quebec town of 6,000 residents, killing 47 people, with total costs surpassing $400 million.
This spring, Ottawa tried to gauge the appetite for railway insurance, seeking out opinions from one major insurer on their observations of the health of Canada’s railways. (continued.)
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The Canadian Deputy Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities Louis Lévesque met with
Zurich’s Ron Mathewson, the assistant vice president of the railroad specialty practice in April, to gather
Zurich’s opinions on the state of insuring railways.
“We were honoured that the Deputy-Minster recognized our expertise in this business and wanted to hear our thoughts on the trends and direction of the railway industry as a whole,” said Mathewson, adding that Zurich has a long-standing tradition of offering railroad insurance products and risk management services and guidance for railways.
While precise details of the conversation were not released, Deputy Minister Lévesque was interested in hearing Zurich’s viewpoints on a variety of topics, including:
- Capacity and appetite for insuring railways, in general, and shortlines, in particular;
- How recent incidents may have affected appetite and availability of insurance for carriers how perceptions could change going forward;
- Any observations about the shortline sector from an insurer’s perspective; and
- A comparison of Canada-U.S. observations related to railway insurance coverage.
