To put it very bluntly you seem very sure you are right and everybody else in the world is wrong. HINT a man who would run a one man train IN MY OPINION would also maske that man work more than the 12 hour limit!!That one engineer probably drove that train all the way from Dakota where it was loaded. HAVE YOU EVER HEARD THE GD WORD FATIGUE?
I don't think so, Sandy.
Ignoring stops, crew changes, slow track speed areas, etc., it would take at least 29 continuous hours at the top speed of 100 km/hour to reach Lac-Mégantic from (say) Bismarck. The maximum allowed on-duty time for a locomotive engineer in road service is 12 hours, after which s/he must take at least an 8 hours continuous break.
That doesn't mean the engineer wasn't fatigued. Maybe he was. The treatment for fatigue is to find a bed and go to sleep. That's exactly what he did, and what every single train crew member does between shifts.
With 2 engineers they could have spelled each other and when it came time to stop for the night not being as fatigued as if one man had to do all the driving.No.
Two-person crews (which are the norm in 99.9% of cases) consist of an engineer and a conductor. In some cases, it may be two engineers. The engineer sits on the right of the cab and operates the train. The conductor sits on the left and calls out signals, manages various on-ground situations, etc. - but s/he [b]DOES NOT DRIVE THE TRAIN[/b]. One driver. No sharing.
They could have both set the brakes properly before leaving the site.That point is correct. It's easier for two workers to climb up on individual cars and apply handbrakes than for just one. That task can be shared. But we still don't know how many handbrakes were actually set (Burkhardt said the engineer said 11, but Burkhardt doesn't believe him) or whether a "push-pull" test was performed.
In any event, whether one or two in the crew, enough handbrakes need to be set to prevent movement. Unscrupulous employers cut staff, speed up work performance, and make all kinds of demands that inevitably lead to errors. There are plenty of derailments and other incidents involving the standard two-person crew - far more (obviously) than with the one-person. That proves nothing in and of itself. Many measures need to be taken to make rail freight transport safer, for railway workers, the public, and the environment.
HELLO!!! Think about it maybe your common sense might finally kick in!!!