All language subtitles for Mayday.S03E12.Runaway.Train.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

An enormous
freight train is out of control,

tearing through
the Canadian Rockies.

The crew does nothing to slow
the train's terrifying speed.

Jack? Are you there?

Charging the other way,

a passenger train, with more
than a hundred people on board.

Front end.
Jack, come in!

Oh my God!

Mayday, mayday,
we're doing 90 miles an hour.

Out of control.

Take a life jacket!

Where's the coast guard?

Don't let go!

It is one of
the most spectacular
train rides in the world.

Every year, thousands of people
take the slow and easy way

through Canada's Rocky
Mountains.

Avoiding traffic,
they take the train

and leave the driving
to somebody else.

In late winter 1986,

a gentle trip through
the Rockies will end tragically.

It was like a mini atom bomb.

And all of a sudden,
it ignited - woof!

I'm going to help you.

I could hear
the woman screaming,

you know...

to save her baby.

An investigation makes
shocking discoveries

about the Canadian
railroad industry.

At that time, I didn't think
that anything was wrong.

February 8th, 1986.

Spectacular northern lights
dance across the sky

over Edson Alberta,
in Western Canada.

Driving freight trains
has been a lifelong dream

for 48-year-old
Canadian National Railways
engineer Jack Hudson.

But after 16 years on the job,

he knows all too well that
it can be a grueling career.

Because Canadian freight trains
travel such vast distances,

up to 12 local crews may be used

in the course of
one cross-country journey.

Hudson works a mountainous
stretch of track
through Alberta,

running between his home town
of Jasper and Edson to the east.

Like many train men,
Hudson works a regular beat.

Driving over the same
stretch of track,

then turning around again with
another train day after day.

At around 11 pm last night,

Hudson got off the freight
train from Jasper

and spent the night here,

in the company bunkhouse
at Edson.

Now he's up again - after
just three and a half hours
of sleep,

ready to return to Jasper.

At the station,
he's joined by his brakeman.

Like Hudson, 25-year-old
Mark Edwards lives in Jasper.

And like Hudson,
he hasn't slept very much.

Did you get some rest?

Not much.
Got a touch of the flu.

I could use
a full night's sleep.

Hudson and Edwards will ride
up front, in the first engine.

Hudson drives the train,
while Edwards keeps
an eye on the brakes,

and pitches in
if Hudson needs any help.

Known to his fellow rail men
as Smitty,

33-year-old Wayne Smith
is Hudson's conductor.

He's the last of
the three-man crew

in charge of the freight
train this morning.

Smitty.

Smith rides in the caboose,
the last car in the train.

He acts as an extra set of eyes,

making sure the men
in the front end

know what's going on
behind them.

The three men are long-time
employees of Canadian
National, or CN, Rail.

And all of them have been up
and down this length of track

countless times before.

The train they are riding
today is enormous.

CN train 413 is just under
two kilometres long.

The cars are filled
with a collection of grain,

metal pipes and chemicals.

It tips the scales
at more than 11 million kilos.

As the freighter
rolls into Edson,

it slows to a crawl,
but doesn't stop.

Getting it started again
would take time.

and the crew wants their trip
to begin as soon as possible.

Hudson and Edwards
take the train 'on the fly',

boarding it as it rolls
slowly along.

According to CN Rail's code
of conduct, this is illegal,

but it's something
crews do routinely.

With the caboose
still nearly 2 km away,

Smith stands by the track
to inspect the cargo

as it crawls by.

He makes sure
there's nothing obviously
wrong with the freight,

or the cars carrying it.

All set, Jack.
Clear signal leaving Edson.

Clear signal leaving Edson.

Another part of Smith's job
is to stay in touch

with the front end of the train.

He's supposed to make sure
they're alert throughout
the journey.

Now with the caboose pulling
alongside the platform,

Smith climbs aboard.

Okay, he's got the brakes off,
you're good to go.

See ya later.

At 6:40 am, Hudson pushes
the throttle.

The freight train picks up speed

as its 8000 horsepower
diesel engines open up.

The CN freight train begins
the long haul west to Jasper.

The men are going home.

Dispatcher to 413.

Good morning, dispatcher.

Good morning, Jack.

But Hudson
isn't sure exactly
how long his train is,

or precisely
what he is carrying.

I'll get a measure
at Medicine Lodge, here.

I haven't had a chance yet.

Oh, that's uh...

You got pretty well
all grain cars, eh?

Yeah, I think so.

Yeah.

It should be the right
length then.

OK, OK, thanks.

As 413 roars west,

a VIA passenger train speeds
east on the same track.

VIA Rail's Super Continental
passenger train #4

is cruising toward
Edmonton, Alberta.

More than a 100 passengers
are enjoying

the spectacular scenery
as it cruises through

the rugged Canadian Rockies.

36-year-old Jaimie Heyd
is a car assembly operator.

He's headed home to Ontario
after a two-week visit

to his family in Vancouver.

It's a very very
small community.

You're in close proximity

with a lot of people
very very suddenly,

and so there is a lot of people
we got to meet

and got to interact with.

I remember there was
a couple of ladies that
we met over dinner.

One was very very pregnant.

While some passengers
are still sleeping,

Heyd goes into the Day Coach
to do some reading

before breakfast.

It's the fourth car
in the train.

I remember this lady
and she had a little boy
with her,

about three years old
or whatever,

and he was quite in awe,
the little child was quite
in awe of the scenery.

So I sat down and I lifted
the shade a little bit,

so I could get some of
the daylight coming in,

and I started to read
a pocket novel.

Several cars behind Heyd
is 61-year-old Assistant
Conductor Herbert Timpe,

an old hand on the Canadian
passenger line.

He's been riding this piece
of track for 7 years.

I had to be the assistant
conductor

and look after the passengers
on that train.

Next stop, Hinton.

The passenger train
is pulling into Hinton.

The freight train is just
about to reach

Hargwen station, 20 km east.

Here, the rail line briefly
splits in two,

so trains can pass each other.

413 will take the upper track,

while the passenger train
passes below it.

As Hudson approaches
the split in the tracks,

traffic signal lights
tell him to slow down.

Smitty, we've gotta
an approach limited
signal at Hargwen.

Next station, Dalehurst. Over.

Head end of 413.
Approach limited at Hargwen.

Next station, Dalehurst. Out.

These are the last words
these men will ever exchange.

A dispatcher in Edmonton
sets a switch,

and 413 is forced
onto the upper track.

The Via passenger train arrives
at Hinton station at 8:20 am.

On board, 64 year old
Martin Pederson settles down

to breakfast in a downstairs
lounge of the dome car.

He's feeling rested after
a good night's sleep.

A former World War II
fighter pilot,

Pederson has a lot of
experience with locomotives.

Over the course of the war,

he blew up 36 enemy trains
in France.

The night before,
Pederson swapped war stories

with another veteran
he met on board.

61-year-old Kenneth Cuttle
is a former Royal Marine.

It was February.

I was going to Edmonton
to look for another job.

Like Pederson, Cuttle also
fought behind enemy lines
in World War II.

Cuttle and Pederson
are survivors.

Let's go upstairs
to the dome car,

have a look around,
see what's happening.

The train was pretty
comfortable you know.

Not many people on board.

I said: "Let's go up
to the dome car",

because it was just coming light

and we could see lots of things

we might not get
another chance to see.

We were in the foothills
of the Rocky Mountains.

There are now
115 people on board.

But the train will never
make it to Edmonton.

And the passengers
and crew enjoying
the early morning trip

will soon be fighting
for their lives.

It's a clear, sunny morning

on board a passenger train
in Western Canada.

Breakfast is being served

as the train rolls east
through the Canadian Rockies.

Just 15 kilometers away,

an 11 million kilo
freight train, CN 413,

rumbles down
the track towards it.

With diesel engines still
pounding at full throttle,

it's pulling 113 rail cars of
grain and hazardous material.

From the outside,
everything looks normal.

But what's going on inside
the lead engine of 413

is about to become
one of the greatest mysteries

in Canadian railroad history.

Freight trains
and passenger trains

often travel on the same track.

For short sections,
the track splits,

so trains heading in opposite
directions can pass safely.

Today, 413 is on
the upper branch.

Signals tell the freight train
to slow, then stop completely.

The signals will only turn
green again

once the passenger train
has passed safely by below.

Then the freight train
can rejoin the main line.

But 413 isn't slowing down.

It's now heading downhill

and it charges through
the warning lights.

If it doesn't stop soon,

it will return to the main line
at full speed,

straight into the path
of the passenger train.

Unaware of the bizarre
behavior of 413,

the passenger train
continues east.

Martin Pederson gets
his breakfast.

Hi!

Up ahead, the freighter
thunders through

the last set of light signals,

ignoring three red lights
that command it to stop.

It slams back onto
the main line.

It's traveling 95 km/h

and weighs more than
11 million kilos.

And still, it doesn't slow down.

Herbert Timpe sits to relax.

Ken Cuttle has a clear view
of the railway ahead.

I got in a conversation
with an English guy

and he had his back
to the front.

And I was looking over
his shoulder forward,

the way the train was going.

There was a flickering light
in the distance.

And not knowing
the track layout, I thought,

"Oh there must be another line,
and if it's another train,

it's going to go past us",
you know.

Just as I was reading
the pocket novel,

one of the girls
from the partier group

happened to just walk past me.

Oh my God...

Oh my God!!!

And then...

Boom.

The trains collide
like two charging rams

at a combined speed
of nearly 200 km/h.

Passengers are rocked
by one collision after another

as 70 freight cars pile
onto the wreckage.

Like an incoming wave.

Grain cars, long pipes,
3 foot in diameter,

30 feet in length, you name it,

and these were flying
through the air

like toys!

Thrown from the tracks
by the force of the collision,

one freight car flies
through the air,

smashing to a stop
of the Via train...

The whole world
seemed to explode.

It was like a mini-atom bomb.

It was a big mushroom
of black smoke.

Then, everything was dark.

I could no longer breathe

because everything
was filled with smoke.

I thought I was going to die.

And the very thing
that happened was...

I just resigned myself to that.

I'd been working about
37 years on the railroad

and I never never seen
anything so bad.

The wave of metal, grain cars

stopped just where
the dome car was.

If it had gone another 30 feet,

it would have covered us
as well.

In the same car,
one deck below,

Martin Pederson
struggles to escape,

but he can barely see

what's happening
in front of him.

The window beside him
shattered during impact,

filling his eyes
with broken glass.

Almost 2 km behind the engine,

the caboose of train 413
finally lurches to a stop.

Conductor Wayne Smith sees
a ball of fire

glowing in the distance.

But he has no idea
how bad the situation is.

Front end 413.

I think we're in the bush
or we're derailed.

There's a big explosion up here

and we have chemicals
on the train,

so stay away from it.

Stay away from
the dangerous goods.

But all Smith gets in reply
is an ominous silence.

Passengers continue
to struggle to escape

the mangled wreck of their train
as the smoke thickens.

I was trained well
in the Royal Marines to survive,

and to act spontaneously.

There was a window
at the back of the dome car

and it was all cracked,
and I just jumped on the seat

and smashed my head in
through the glass roof,

and shouted:
"Come on, let's get out!"

Cuttle and others
jump from the car.

I looked back, and all of
a sudden it ignited - woof!

Down below in the lounge car,

Martin Pederson also
manages to escape.

But others aren't so lucky.

Many are still trapped
in the burning cars,

including passenger Jamie Heyd.

The roof of the coach
had been crunched down.

I'd lost my glasses.

I couldn't see,
I couldn't breathe,

and here was the porter that
had been behind the snack bar,

had opened up this exit way

and he had vamoosed out
through it.

And I took off behind him too.

Snap out of it!
He was in shock.

Hey! Snap out of it!

"Hey buddy,
pull it together here.

There's people in here.

We got to do something
about it." But...

Half blind without
his glasses,

Heyd goes back inside,
trying to help others
out of the wreck.

413 here dispatcher...

We got a big explosion
up here...

Back in the caboose,
Smith is talking to
the freight train's dispatcher

some 285 km away in Edmonton.

We better get
a doctor out here.

Herb Timpe,
the assistant conductor
on the passenger train,

can hear the conversation
on his radio and breaks in.

And passenger coaches
all over the ditch.

And get an ambulance!

And there's a whole bunch
of cars on fire.

You get that, dispatcher?

We need to find the fire
department here very badly.

Some coaches are trapped
with passengers inside,
they're burning...

I don't think the engineers
lived through this one.

It's a real mess.

OK. That's right
on the switch at Dalehurst, eh?

Yes. I'm gonna walk up there

and see if I can be
of any assistance.

What was
the signal at Dalehurst
when your head-end called it?

Pardon me?

What was the signal
on that signal at Dalehurst?

Well I was callin' him
for the signal at Dalehurst

quite a few times,

but uh I kept calling him
and there was no answer.

Well, it should have been
red on the panel.

Well he must have ran it then,
dispatcher

because I could not get a hold
of him. I tried and I tried.

OK, alright.

Back at the head
of the passenger train,

Jamie Heyd tries to save
who he can.

Are you OK?
I'm going to help you.

Heyd can hear
the screams of men and women

trapped in the flames.

I could hear the woman I had
dinner with the night before,

screaming, you know uh...

to save her baby.

Heyd was not able to save
the mother and her child,

they are out of reach
under debris.

That was...
that was difficult.

People who were trapped
and couldn't get out, screaming,

screaming like
you'd never heard.

One guy knew that
his wife was trapped

and he went back in
and died with her.

Another woman in the carriage
under where we were

had most of her leg cut off.

James Heyd courageously
decides to go back inside.

The fire is a scorching
660 degrees,

but Heyd tries
to save one more life.

There was the chap
right in front of me there,

and it was the chap I had
dinner with the night before.

And all of a sudden the flames
came and consumed him.

He just sat up
and rubbed his head.

There was nothing more
we could do for him.

Anybody in front of me
in that coach was dead.

For whatever the reasons,
it wasn't my time to go then,

for whatever the reasons.

Wayne Smith is devastated.

He can't reach his two friends
at the front of
the freight train,

and he can't understand
what happened

to cause such
an enormous disaster.

In Western Canada,

a freight train has smashed
head-on into a passenger train

carrying more than
a hundred people.

In the minutes
after the collision,

survivors are dragging
themselves

from the burning wreckage

while others are
still trapped inside.

One of the girls
that had been in the car
in the morning,

and I looked at her and I said:
"I'm sorry to tell you, your..."

He had no choice
but to tell her

what happened to her friend
in the train.

...your friend
was in the car here.

She died trapped in
the burning debris.

I felt like the worst person
in the world,

because I had to tell her.

If I could have taken back
that one second in time

and not tell her, you know.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Constable Mark Linnell

is one of the first
to arrive on the scene.

I was told there was
a train derailment,

not a train crash.

I mean that's a double whammy.

The RCMP officer came.

He could hardly speak,
his mouth dropped open

and he said: "I can't believe
what I'm witnessing."

It's a horrifying scene.

Pictures taken shortly
after the crash show
utter devastation.

I mean I was flabbergasted.

I just couldn't believe it.

And I... instantly.

That's quite the thing to see.

The collision is 18 km
from the town of Hinton.

It takes emergency crews
some 45 minutes to get there.

I was in the marines
in England for 14 years

and I'd seen a lot of disasters,

man-made disasters,
terrorist bombs,

and I thought I'd seen it all.

There was a lot of
blunt force trauma, of course,

flying glass, burns.

And then I saw

what appeared to be two bodies

in the restaurant car
hugging each other.

We found out later it was
a man and a wife,

and this was one heck
of a shock.

As Linnell is escorting
survivors away from the site,

he sees a lone man with a radio
coming down the track.

Hey, how's the front end
doing?

What's your name?

Smith is about to learn
that his colleagues aboard
his train are dead.

Like what happened?

Like, did they make
contact with the...?

We're still under
the investigation

and there's not a lot
that I can tell you right now.

Okay, so they still might
be... I mean...?

No, I'm really sorry...

He was distraught and shaken.

His train is wrecked,
with all his people dead.

The Hinton train disaster
is the worst railway accident

to strike Canada in 35 years.

More that 30 million dollars
in property are destroyed,

23 people are dead,
and 71 others are
severely injured.

Wayne Smith is the only
surviving crew member
of the CN train.

The only man who may
be able to explain

how a 11 million kilo freighter

plowed head first into
an oncoming passenger train.

What he knows could be critical

to unraveling the cause
of the disaster.

Two days after the collision,

the Alberta Government
establishes an Official
Commission of Inquiry.

And the Honorable
Mr. Justice Rene P. Foisy
leads the investigation.

Judge Foisy is a justice
of the Alberta Court of Appeal.

It was reasonably simple,
I mean: What caused
the accident?

But it turned out to be a lot
more complicated than that

because there were no easy
answers as to what caused
the accident.

Freight and passenger trains
routinely use the same tracks
without incident.

What was different this time?

Over the next 11 months,
Foisy calls on 150 witnesses

and specialists
to help him find out.

I think what has
most surprised me is
the complex procedures,

the equipment,
the overall complexity

that we have to look at
in running a railroad,

and what goes on
in running a railroad.

While Conductor Smith
recovers from the accident,

Foisy gets to work.

He begins by studying
the signals

that should have told
the freight train to stop.

If they weren't working,
the crew on 413

may not have thought
they needed to slow down.

CN did a very in-depth test

on the signal system

and it was determined that

it was performing properly.

We went further.

We hired our own independent
experts to test the systems.

The switches which operate
the signal lights

were frozen in position
after the accident.

Electrical engineer Eugene Kowch
was hired to read them.

Perhaps a mechanical fault
in the system

had turned them green,

telling the freight
to speed through.

A fault does not give
a positive green light

to any situation,

so if there was a fault in
any control part of the system,

it would have forced
everything to go to red

which meant the passenger train
would have stopped

and would have forced
the freight train to stop.

If a mechanical problem
wasn't the cause,

there was a more
chilling possibility.

Perhaps someone set
the freight train lights
to green on purpose,

causing the two trains
to collide.

Kowch dismissed that idea too.

To do that would mean
that somebody would have
to actually go there

and really maliciously
change things,

and there was no sign of
any tampering on any mechanisms.

Basically our conclusion,

we felt the system
was sound and was safe.

Foisy believes
the lights were red,

but the freight train
ignored them.

Perhaps another mechanical
fault was behind the crash.

Well I was calling him
for the signal at Dalehurst,
quite a few times.

In his statement
after the crash,

Conductor Wayne Smith told Royal
Canadian Mounted Police officers

that something was wrong
with his radio that morning.

...because I could not
get a hold of him.

I tried and I tried.

Maybe the front of the train
was having mechanical problems,

but they weren't able
to get in contact with Smith.

Joseph Hebert examines
the portable radios
the crew used.

The first test was
with the radio

that was on the train that was
in the accident at Hinton.

The radio performed
to specifications.

But even if the radios
themselves were working,

there could be another problem.

Many employees CN claim there
are places along the tracks

where radio communication
is impossible - so-called
dead spots.

And it's not a dead spot
that's there 365 days a year.

The possibility was also
examined and dismissed.

Sometimes you can't.

Some radios are stronger.
Some are weaker.

The second test done,
as far as communications

between the locomotive
and the caboose,

was done with the same type
of radio as was used

at the time the accident
took place.

The field tests
with that type of radio

had satisfactory performance.

The evidence was pretty clear

and we concluded that
there were no dead spots.

One other possible
explanation is examined.

Natural phenomena like
the Northern lights

can also affect
radio performance.

Uh, I'll get a measure
at Medicine Lodge--

Northern lights can build up

very high currents
in communication lines.

Anything hooked up
to a radio can pick it up.

My determination of it
was that they were not a factor.

If the signals were red,

and the radios were working,
why had the train crashed?

Foisy examines an ingenious
piece of technology:

the Hot Box Detector.

Sitting beside the track,
hotboxes monitor

the temperature of
a train's wheels and axles.

They also record the speed
of trains as they roar by.

When Foisy and his advisors
examine the hot box data,

they make a telling discovery.

When the front of
the freight train passed

the hot box detector
just after Hargwen,

it was traveling
a little over 60 km/h.

But by the time the caboose
passed it,

the train was going
more than 74 km/h.

Despite the signals
telling it to slow down,

the train was speeding up.

For the last 5 miles,

we were able to determine
that the freight train

was going at least 59 Mph,

perhaps as high as 60 or 61.

There were no break applications
before the crash as well.

The crew let the train
travel too fast.

They did not head
signals to stop.

And they never applied
the brakes.

It all points to a train
that was out of control.

Why there were no brake
application?

It's difficult to understand.

Oh my God!!!

With mechanical problems
ruled out,

Foisy begins to examine
the crew of the freight train.

Perhaps there is something
about engineer Jack Hudson,

who was in charge of the train,

that could explain
what happened that day.

As Foisy begins sifting through
Hudson's medical records

and interviewing his family,

he makes a disturbing discovery.

A train collision
in Western Canada

has killed 23 people.

Another 71 are injured.

The man leading the inquiry
into the disaster

has ruled out
mechanical problems.

Judge Rene Foisy now takes
a closer look at Jack Hudson,

the 16-year veteran who was
driving the freight train.

When Foisy and the commission
review Hudson's medical files,

they are shocked
by what they discover.

Mister Hudson
was a man who was sick.

He was an alcoholic.

He had high-blood pressure,
which was problematic.

He had diabetes.

He had a pancreatic attack

the summer before this accident.

He had to wear a colostomy
for a number of months.

Foisy wonders if this long
list of illnesses could somehow

have led to the train crash.

The engineer Jack Hudson
had been killed outright
in the crash

and had severe injuries.

So we couldn't determine

whether there has been
a catastrophic medical event

whether he'd had a heart attack
for example or a stroke

which had incapacitated him,

but we were able
to do toxicology

and there was no alcohol
or drugs present.

He did have a lot
of health problems

and he had some problems
at home.

That these problems at home
appeared to be on the mend,

and that he was not
the kind of man who,

if he was going
to commit suicide,

would take 23 people with him
and injure another 70,

some of them very
very seriously,

so we discounted
that possibility of a suicide.

If it wasn't suicide,

if Hudson did have a stroke
or heart attack at the controls,

why didn't his brakeman
Mark Edwards take any action?

Investigators come up
with one plausible answer.

Did you get some rest?

Not much.
Got a touch of the flu.

Could use a full night's sleep.

Perhaps Edwards had been
asleep on the job.

Dr. Alison Smiley is an expert
on sleep and fatigue.

Jack Hudson,
he had had at the very most

before he went on duty that day,
three and a half hours of sleep.

And that is if he slept
from the last moment

somebody saw him till the moment

somebody next saw him again.
Three and a half hours.

The brakeman said had
a touch of the flu,

and he had 5 hours of sleep
the night before.

Wayne Smith, similarly,
had had insufficient sleep,

about five hours
before the collision.

As the freight train passed
the signals telling it to stop,

the entire crew
may have been fast asleep.

You could work at
any time of the day,

so one day you might start
at 4 o'clock in the morning,

the next day you start
at 2 in the afternoon.

Their hours were so erratic

that they were continually
in a jet lag state.

Because their physiology
was never fully adjusted

to any particular working hours.

When it comes to staying
alert, train engineers
face many challenges,

including long rides up and down
the same stretch of track.

The tracks going by
one after the other.

It's a very soporific
situation to work in,

and easy to see how somebody,

no matter how motivated,

could fall asleep.

At the time, trains were
equipped with safety devices

that will automatically stop
a train if the engine man died

or fell asleep, the so-called
Dead Man's Pedal.

Basically, the engineer
is supposed to keep

his foot on the pedal.

And while his foot
is on the pedal,

the train won't stop.

If that pedal isn't depressed,

then it will,
after a number of seconds,

give a warning,
which is quite audible,

and if nothing happens then,
it will stop the train.

But Foisy discovers
that for many train men,

disabling the dead man's pedal
is standard practice.

One of the excuses
that was given

by the engineers was that,
to go long distances,

having to keep your foot
on that pedal

was very uncomfortable.

And so that they would sometimes

put something on the pedal,

a lunch box or something heavy
enough to keep it depressed

so that they could stretch
their legs.

Unfortunately,
what was happening,

this pedal was being depressed
for long long periods of time.

But even if Edwards and Hudson
had fallen asleep

at the front of the train,

and the dead man's pedal
was rigged,

Conductor Wayne Smith
at the back

could still have prevented
the disaster.

Almost two months
into the Foisy inquiry,

Smith takes the stand.

Doctors had kept him
from testifying earlier,

saying he was too traumatized
by the accident.

Now, for the first time,

investigators will hear Smith

reconstruct events
on board his train

in the moments leading up
to the disaster.

I was sitting looking out
the back of the train

from my desk when we passed
mile board 169 -

that's the uh,
that's the landmark

that I used to initiate
a call to the engineer to ask

for the display at the Dalehurst
approach signal.

Head end of 413,
what indication do you have

at Dalehurst approach
signal 1703? Over.

The front end of the train
is supposed to respond,

letting Smith know that
they've seen the signal lights

telling them to slow down.

Head of 413,
can you hear me? Over.

I probably called him
three or four times.

I didn't get a response
on my gray radio.

There was something
wrong with it.

What's the indication
at signal 1703? Over.

It's a surprising
piece of testimony.

Foisy already knows
the radios were working fine.

When Smith is asked how fast
he thought the train was going

before the collision,
Foisy gets another surprise.

I felt the front end give
a light brake application
on the caboose.

Coming around the curve,

I felt that we were doing track
speed of about 50 Mph or less.

But according to
the hot box detectors,

the train was traveling
almost 16 km/h over track speed,

and there was never
any application of the brakes.

I went to my red radio

and I tried to get
a hold of him, on it.

Jack, how is the Dalehurst
approach signal 1703?

I was calling him on channel 1
three or four times

and there was no answer,

so I tried to get a hold of
him on different channels.

But once again, Smith's
testimony doesn't add up.

Foisy has heard
from other train men

who were monitoring their radios
in the area that day.

No one heard Smith call.

Smith says he was still
trying to contact Hudson

when the end of the train
raced past signals

telling it to slow down.

Jack!

As an experienced train man,

Smith knows that the next
set of lights will
likely be a triple red,

telling the train to stop.

He was getting no answer,

and the train
wasn't slowing down.

An emergency brake cord
was in easy reach,

but Smith never pulled it.

Jack, are you there?

With Hudson mysteriously
silent,

Smith says he does nothing,

but continue to call
the front end.

Front end.
Jack come in?

Why in the circumstances
that you've described,

did you not pull the brake?

I felt the engineer
had the train under control.

I felt that he in fact,
was doing what was necessary

to control the train
at that point.

I never felt
at any point in time

that I should pull
the emergency brake.

At that time I didn't think
that anything was wrong.

That's the point
I make, Mr Smith.

That when there is a problem
with the radio,

you have been trained
over the years

to observe the signals.

It would have been the last
thing I would have done.

He didn't pull the brake,
he didn't pull the air,

because he felt it hadn't
reached that point.

Basically that was his evidence

and I had a lot of
difficulty with that

because if it... if that point
hadn't been reached,

when was it going to be
reached, if ever?

Smith's contradictory
testimony is complete.

Judge Foisy is now ready
to close his case

and lay the blame on those
responsible for the disaster.

The inquiry into one
of the deadliest train crashes
in Canada is complete.

23 people were killed
when a freight train crashed

head on into a passenger train
near Hinton, Alberta.

Chief investigator Rene Foisy
has explored every angle -

from technical malfunction
to human error.

He is now ready to deliver
his report

on what went wrong that day.

In his 205-page report,

Foisy parcels out the blame,
naming all the key offenders.

Foisy writes that the train's
engineer, Jack Hudson,

failed to observe and obey
light signals commanding him

to stop his train before
it entered the single track.

If Hudson was unable
to do his job,

brakeman Mark Edwards
failed to intervene.

He also ignored
the light signals

and didn't brake the train

before it entered
the single track.

Conductor Wayne Smith
was guilty too.

He had failed to follow
operating rules

and pull the emergency brake

when he couldn't contact
the two men

at the front of the train.

In a statement to police,

he had even suggested

that he thought
they were sleeping.

I said that my head end
was asleep.

Do you recall making
that response, sir?

Yes, I do.

With so many contradictions
in his testimony,

Foisy rules that the conductor's
evidence is unreliable.

I wasn't sure
what had happened,

and uh, I went to my back desk,

I'd jumped down
my cupola and ran for...

it seemed like we were
just keeping going.

There was no immediate stopping.

The caboose kept sliding.

Instead, Foisy emphasizes
that Smith,

like Edwards and Hudson,

was dangerously
tired that morning.

I just wanted to get home,
actually, at the time.

But the crew aren't
the only ones

Foisy blames for the accident.

According to the Foisy report,

Jack Hudson may well have had
a stroke or heart attack

before the collision,

but CN management had known
about Hudson's medical
record for years.

He managed to accumulate,
I think it was 40 or 50 demerits

and at 60 you're fired.

But after he got to that level,

there were some
other infractions

which weren't recorded.

Foisy also calls attention
to the rules

that were routinely ignored,

such as rigging
the dead man's pedal

and taking the train on the fly.

The conclusion we came to
was that there was a lot
to be desired

on the part of CN,

and that yes,
there was certainly

some laxness

and some complacency

when it came to these areas.

Uh, I'll get a measure
at Medicine Lodge here.

I haven't had a chance yet.

Oh that's uh...

You've got pretty well
all grain cars, eh?

Yeah, I think so.

There is a lesson
to be learned here.

It's that when you have rules,

you obey the rules
and you enforce the rules.

If it becomes too much
of a fraternity

and a buddy-buddy system,

it gets lax.

And problems occur,

and this tragedy
was one of them.

Foisy demands that
CN improve its safety equipment,

recommending that all trains
be equipped

with Reset Safety
Control technology.

These systems are much
more complicated

than a dead man's pedal.

If constant attention
is not paid to the train,

alarms sound, and the train
eventually shuts down.

It's equipment which has proved

valuable several times
since the disaster.

There was a study done
with CN,

10 years after this accident.

They found something like
90% of the train engineers

saying that they had been
woken by the alerting device

at least once.

In response to Foisy's report,

CN Rail creates one of
the most sophisticated

Fatigue Countermeasures Programs
in the world.

Train men are no longer on call

seven days a week,
24 hours a day.

Napping is no longer
frowned upon.

Rest houses have been
created and improved

and locomotive cabs
made more comfortable.

For the victims of the Hinton
disaster of 1986,

changes to Canadian railroading
come too late.

I still remember the people

that were killed
in the accident,

and the good friends
I had on the railroad.

And that's really...

It does bother me.

Now it's 20 years nearly,

and I'm still going strong.

Very lucky.

I don't equate it to luck, no.

Too much of a tragedy
to think about luck.

There's too much hurt
that happened inside of me.

It took me quite a while
to rebuild my sanity again.

I got over it fairly quickly,
and got on with my life.

There may be lots of other
people who weren't as lucky.

You can be going along in life

and then something comes along

and just kinda destroys
your very foundation,

or shatters
your very foundation.

And through no fault
of your own,

but life has a habit
of doing that.

But the other thing I can share
is that you can recover from it.

There is a tomorrow.

difuze