3 railway employees cleared of charges in Canadian oil train derailment

Three past employees of the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway were acquitted on Friday of charges of criminal negligence over a 2013 train crash that left 47 individuals dead, CBC reported.

The derailment sparked congressional action for more safety regulations on oil train movement in the U.S.

The three individuals include an operations manager, a traffic controller and an engineer, the report said.

{mosads}An attorney for engineer Tom Harding said his client was “too moved” to provide an “expression of what he feels inside.”

“But I know he feels terribly relieved and terribly thankful to the system, the jury system, to this jury in particular to have taken all the efforts that they took to really understand the situation and not just understand one point of view,” said Tom Walsh, as reported by the Canadian news outlet.

The trial reportedly started in September and deliberations had been ongoing since Jan. 11.

Jasmine Guillaum, the prosecutor on the case, argued the three individuals did not execute their duties when the runaway train derailed in the town of Lac-Mégantic, causing tank cars filled with oil to explode.