With the increase in automobile ownership and the ease of airplane travel, most people don’t give trains much thought these days. We rarely think about traveling by train and we generally only notice them when we get stuck waiting for one to pass. It may surprise you, then, to know that statistics show there are around 13,000 railroad related accidents every year according to the Federal Railroad Administration’s Office of Safety Analysis. About once every hour and a half there is a train collision or derailing. Even more shocking is the fact that around 1000 deaths a year and 8,000 non-fatal injuries can be attributed to train accidents. Given these statistics, maybe we should pay a little more attention to our oldest form of transportation.
It may surprise you to know that nearly half of all collisions at railroad crossings occur when the warning devices (flashing lights or gates) are actually present and functioning properly. So why do these accidents happen? Frequently it is because a pedestrian or a driver of a vehicle thinks that they can “run the train”. People believe that they can make it across before the train gets there. Often times, people believe that a train will be able to stop in time if they have misjudged the distance. The reality is that the average train traveling at 50 miles an hour will take about a mile to come to a complete stop. Over 50% of fatal train accidents happen at crossings where there are passive warning devices or not at all. Other causes of train accidents can be mechanical failure, debris or other obstructions on the railway or human error. Just recently in California, a train conductor was blamed for the worst train accident in the United States in the last 15 years because he was texting just before the accident occurred. Twenty-five people were killed and 135 injured because the driver failed to heed trackside signals.
While your chances of being involved in a train accident may be smaller than an automobile accident, your injuries can be just as bad. Brain trauma, concussions, fractures, spinal cord injuries, internal injuries or even death are just some of the potential injuries sustained as the result of a train accident. Considering the fact that a train carrying hazardous materials goes off the tracks every two weeks, there is also the additional danger of injuries from hazardous materials. As with vehicle collisions, you could be a victim simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The shear bulk of a train increases the chance of serious injury and decreases your chances of surviving a collision. Unfortunately, most railroad crossings to do not have adequate warning devices. Railroads are still largely relying on technology developed over 50 years ago to regulate trains and safeguard the public. Couple that with the fact that people tend to ignore the warning devices that do exist and you have, as the saying goes “a train wreck waiting to happen”.
If you, or someone you know, has been involved in a train accident, you may be entitled to recover damages for your injuries. Contact the law offices of Ledger & Associates at 1-800-300-0001 or visit us at www.ledgerlaw.com for more information.
