Toll in derailment presumed to be 50

LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec — Canadian officials told distraught families Wednesday that 30 people still missing after the fiery crash of a runaway oil train are all presumed dead.

Along with 20 bodies found, that would put the death toll from Saturday’s derailment and explosions in this lakeside town at 50.

Hours before that somber meeting, the head of the U.S. railway company whose train crashed made his first visit to Lac-Megantic since the disaster, amid jeers from residents and criticism from politicians, including the Quebec premier.

The rail chief blamed the engineer for failing to set the brakes properly before the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway train hurtled down a sevenmile incline, derailed and ignited. All but one of the 73 cars was carrying oil, and at least five exploded.

Edward Burkhardt, president and CEO of parent company Rail World Inc., said the engineer had been suspended without pay and was under “police control.”

Parts of the devastated town had remained too hot and dangerous to enter and find bodies days after the disaster. Some 60 people had been presumed missing earlier.

“Now we are standing here with a number of 50 persons that we are considering most probably dead in this tragedy,” said Quebec police inspector Michel Forget, who came to an afternoon news briefing from a meeting with families of the dead and missing.

Only one of the bodies found so far has been formally identified, said Genevieve Guilbault of the coroner’s office. She did not release the name but said next of kin had been notified.

Until Wednesday, the railway company had defended its employees’ actions, but that changed abruptly as Burkhardt singled out the engineer as culpable.

“We think he applied some hand brakes, but the question is, did he apply enough of them?” Burkhardt said. “He said he applied 11 hand brakes. We think that’s not true. Initially we believed him, but now we don’t.”

Burkhardt did not name the engineer, though the company had previously identified the employee as Tom Harding of Quebec. Harding has not spoken publicly since the crash.

Quebec police have said they were pursuing a wide-ranging criminal investigation, extending to the possibilities of criminal negligence and some sort of tampering with the train before the crash.