Lac-Mégantic verdict: Not guilty
Written by David Thomas, Canadian Contributing EditorA jury of 12 Quebec citizens, after several days of deliberations that came very close to impasse, declined Jan. 19 to accept prosecutors’ contention that three Montreal, Maine & Atlantic employees were criminally responsible for the July 2013 runaway oil train calamity in the lakeside resort town of Lac-Mégantic that claimed 47 lives and destroyed the historic town’s downtown core.
![“Thanks to Secretary Pete [Buttigieg], USDOT, the Federal Railroad Administration and all our partners for making the S-Line passenger rail a reality!!” NCDOT Secretary Joey Hopkins said in a July 1 LinkedIn post. “Thanks to the hard work of our NCDOT team we broke ground on the first construction project in the Raleigh to Wake Forest segment, a $19M project to grade separate Durant Road 7 months after the grant announcement!!” (Photograph Courtesy of Joey Hopkins)](https://www.railwayage.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/slinelead-315x168.png)
