Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, Ltd.

The Lac-Megantic disaster was not the product of one inexplicable act. A parked crude-oil train was left dependent on an invalid hand-brake test, a leaking locomotive air system and operating practices that lacked an independent physical defence against movement. A locomotive fire then changed the braking conditions. The resulting runaway killed 47 people and exposed how carrier controls, dangerous-goods containment, regulatory follow-up, insolvency protection and long-term community recovery can fail as a connected system. This analysis separates the Transportation Safety Board's safety findings from criminal verdicts, regulatory dispositions, civil judgments, later reforms and counterfactual tests.