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  The quarterly newsletter for Safety Professionals

Q4, 2009 ::Issue 17

   

Top Story

  30th Anniversary of the “Mississauga Miracle”
 

The event that led to the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act.

 


Canadian Pacific Railway train 54 derailed at the Mavis Road level crossing when a journal box on a tank car, lacking lubrication, failed. In trainmen's vernacular, the overheated journal box became a "hot box". Twenty-three other cars followed the tanker, causing a deafening crash and squeal of metal as cars collided at the crossing. On impact, some of the propane cars burst into flames. That was at 11:53 p.m. Saturday, November 10, 1979.

As the derailed train's tank cars piled up on each other, tankers containing styrene and toluene were punctured, spilling their chemicals on to track beds. Flammable liquids and vapors ignited, causing a massive explosion of a tank car. The flames rose to a height of 1,500 meters and could be seen over 100 kilometers away. The fire was fed by five dangerous ingredients - 11 tank cars of propane, four with caustic soda, three with styrene, three with toluene, and one with chlorine. The deadly chlorine gas posed an immediate hazard to the local population and the emergency workers, but the burning propane and the possibility of more explosions meant that little could be done to stop the leak other than evacuating a large portion of the City.

On Tuesday, the 13th of November, the propane fire finally died and the Chlorine tanker was patched; but, it wasn’t until the following Monday, the 19th, that the chlorine was finally removed from the site and pumped out of the damaged tanker. On the 21st, the last piece of wreckage was removed.

Despite the ‘miracle’ that no one was killed or seriously injured, the horrendous cost of the evacuation of a major Canadian city led directly to the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act and the Regulations that enforce it. Today, the standards to which tank cars are built and maintained, the position of chemical tankers in a train consist, and the Emergency Response Assistance Plans for the dangerous goods are regulated by the TDG Act. It is unlikely that another ‘Mississauga’ accident could occur again.

Links:
- Mississauga Train Derailment You Tube Video
- Mississauga Website

 

 
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