IN the wake of the terrible tragedy following a train derailment and explosion in Lac Megantic, Quebec last weekend, there are so far many more questions than answers.
Safety officials are just beginning to piece together exactly what happened sometime before 1 a.m. last Saturday, sending an inferno through the small Quebec community. Their findings may shed light on uncomfortable issues.
The small town has suffered terrible losses, including 24 people killed and 36 missing. But it is not the only community to face the issue of dangerous goods transported by rail.
Our country was built on rail and it still plays an essential role in shipping many commodities.
There are few communities, including here, where potentially dangerous goods - chlorine, acids and other industrial chemicals - aren't shipped by rail.
Residents frequently don't even know what might be rolling past nearby. Last week's tragedy should give us all pause.
In recent days there have been questions raised about problems that had previously been identified in transport of such goods. There have been questions about who follows up to make sure rules are being followed and if the rules are stringent enough.
There are questions about why stronger railcars aren't being used, why one employee was running the train and why failsafes weren't in place on the line.
In the wake of the disaster, the federal transport minister has said we will learn from what happened and take action.
A full review of how dangerous goods are transported would be a good starting point.
