Case Study : The Lac-Mgantic rail disaster he Lac-Mgantic rail disaster occurred in the town ofLac-Mgantic, in the Eastern Townships region of Quebec, Canada, atapproximately

Case Study : The Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

he Lac-Mégantic rail disaster occurred in the town ofLac-Mégantic, in the Eastern Townships region of Quebec, Canada, atapproximately 01:15 EDT, on July 6, 2013, when an unattended 74-carfreight train carrying Bakken Formation crude oil rolled down a1.2% grade from Nantes and derailed downtown, resulting in the fireand explosion of multiple tank cars. Forty-two people wereconfirmed dead, with five more missing and presumed dead.More than30 buildings in the town's centre, roughly half of the downtownarea, were destroyed,and all but three of the thirty-nine remainingdowntown buildings had to be demolished due to petroleumcontamination of the townsite. Initial newspaper reports describeda 1-kilometre (0.6 mi) blast radius.

The death toll of 47 makes it the fourth-deadliest rail accidentin Canadian history,and the deadliest involving a non-passengertrain. It is also the deadliest rail accident since Canada'sconfederation in 1867; the last Canadian rail accident to have ahigher death toll was the St-Hilaire train disaster in 1864.

Case one questions for the first case 1) Who would be blamed for the crisis and why? 2) In crisis what guidelines should all employees (officers) follow when representing their organization (country) to the media or the public? 3) How would you evaluate the leader's crisis or the official spokesman management competence? Provide examples of his deeds and words led to your evaluation? 4) How would context (physical geographic environment, setting, timing, cultural diversity, audience response) have affected public responses to the leader and the crisis?