By John Cooper, Railroad Injury and FELA Attorney

Major freight railroads across the United States reported record or near-record profits for 2010. Union Pacific had its best financial year ever. Kansas City Southern saw its year-to-year profit grow 82 percent. The two rail operators with the largest presence in my part of the country, CSX and Norfolk Southern, both increased their profits by more than 35 percent.

When discussing his company’s performance during the fourth quarter of the past fiscal year, the CEO of Norfolk Southern said, “During 2010, we profitably grew the business, invested in the franchise, generated significant levels of cash, and produced attractive returns for our shareholders. We have every reason to believe that 2011 will be an even stronger year for us.”

Missing from that rosy scenario is the reality that 2010 was another dangerous, deadly year on America’s rails and in the nation’s rail yards. Through the end of last November, the Federal Railroad Administration received some 8,000 reports of injuries and deaths among railroad workers, rail passengers and people crossing tracks in vehicles or on foot. That represented an increase of nearly 200 over the same period of 2009.

It’s also likely that the 2010 and 2009 figures are lower than the actual number of reportable, FELA on-duty incidents. Fearing  illegal and unethical intimidation, discrimination and retaliation against men and women who stand up and tell the companies of accidents and safety problems, many rail employees may not report dangers and injuries.

As freight volumes, miles traveled and hours on the job have grown, the numbers of accidents and fatalities on railroads have kept pace. That logic need not hold, however.

Dedicating a meaningful portion of their hundreds of millions in profits to identifying and resolving risks to employee and public safety would allow railroad operators — from Amtrak to Canadian Pacific — to better protect workers, riders, drivers and pedestrians. Needed improvements include clearing sight lines around and along private grade crossings, strengthening fencing along tracks in urban areas, deploying positive train control technology and developing work rules and staffing levels that ensure employees get adequate rest between shifts.

Safety costs money. But having spent decades working with my law firm colleagues to represent and provide legal advice to victims of railroad accidents, I know that each dollar spent on making trains, tracks, rail yards and train equipment safer is a dollar well spent.

EJL

About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton is an injury law firm with a long history of representing railroad workers in FELA and other railroad injury cases. Check out our railroad injury case results to see for yourself. Our offices are in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA), and Elizabeth City, North Carolina (NC). Our lawyers hold licenses in VA, NC, SC, WV, KY and DC and have handled hundreds of railroad injury and FELA cases throughout the eastern United States. We would like to send you one of our FREE reports about railroad injury and FELA cases, including Dos and Don’ts When Injured at a Railroad — Yours FELA Rights and What Railroad Claim Agents Won’t Tell You (But You Must Know). We provide free initial confidential injury case consultations, so call us toll free at (800) 752-0042 before giving any statement or talking to a railroad claims agent. Our injury attorneys also host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube. Furthermore, our lawyers proudly moderate the Yardlimits Railroad Community Forum and donate to the Fallen Brother Fund.