But it's not a matter of making excuses. The question is, are the rules set up so as to make it easy for the employees to do it right? I still wonder about some things.
(1) In the first place, what were they doing tying up, anyway? Didn't the train have to go to New Brunswick? Shouldn't they keep it going through the night so it would get to New Brunswick sooner? Is there some rule that trains can't run after midnight? Or did the railroad not have another rested engineer ready to go?
(2) Did they really run this with a crew of one? Sounds really risky, especially with a train of flammable liquids. Someone suggested that the conductor had reached the end of his hours and went home. But it was also suggested that the HOS rules don't apply to setting the brakes. So why didn't the conductor stick around to help the engineer set the brakes?
(3) It has long been the practice to let diesel locomotives idle all night, spewing pollution, annoying the neighbors with their noise, and consuming petroleum. The argument is that it is a lot of trouble to start up a diesel loco from cold. Is it time to review this? Did the engineer perhaps subconsciously say, "Well, I'll set a few brakes, but really, the loco will run all night and keep air in the system." The flaw in the reasoning is obvious: Loco caught on fire and the fireman switched it off. If the rule were that any loco that is not expected to be used within the next, say three hours, must be switched off, the engineer would understand that, difficult and fatiguing though the job may be, he would have to set the brakes.