By Randy Appleton, Mesothelioma Attorney in Virginia

In his latest blog post to our Virginia (VA) personal injury lawyers website, my colleague Rick Shapiro reports on a $90 million jury award to a retired pipefitter who developed mesothelioma after being exposed to airborne asbestos on the job. Jurors accepted evidence that makers of asbestos insulation and the man’s employers had reached an agreement to keep quiet about short- and long-term asbestos dangers. To read more, click over to “$90M Mesothelioma Verdict Based on Evidence of Conspiracy by Manufacturers and Employers.”

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About the Editors: The Virginia- and Carolina-based attorneys at Shapiro, Lewis & Appleton have long histories of representing railroad workers in FELA and other railroad injury cases and of helping victims of rail crossing accidents. Lawyers at our firm have served as chairmen of the railroad section of the American Association for Justice, the largest national victim’s injury attorney organization, and one of our attorneys wrote a major legal encyclopedia section on railroad safety litigation. Check out our railroad injury case results to see for yourself. Be sure to get your free reports about railroad injury, disease and wrongful death FELA cases: The Do’s and Don’ts When Injured at a Railroad — Yours FELA Rights and What Railroad Claim Agents Won’t Tell You (But You Must Know). Also, our railroad injury lawyers proudly moderate the Yardlimits Railroad Community Forum and donate to the Fallen Brother Fund.

By Randy Appleton, Attorney Representing Railroad Employees in FELA Cases

A 57-year-old welder for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Company died after being struck by and pulled under a rail grinder in a rail yard in Amarillo, Texas (TX). A BNSF spokesman told reporters the fatal January 9, 2011, on-the-job accident appears to have resulted from “some kind of miscommunication” while the rail maintenance car was being moved from one track to another so it could be repaired.

I find that statement particularly interesting because my Virginia Beach, VA-based FELA lawyer colleague Rick Shapiro recently noted  that a 3-train collision in Indiana (IN) which left two of six crew members seriously injured also seemingly resulted from a breakdown in communications. The federal Safety Appliance Act requires railroad corporations to supply employees with the equipment and training needed to ensure all workers in danger of being injured or killed stay informed of where hazards exist and how those hazards can be avoided or mitigated.

Full and proper communication can only occur when the people who must share information have the tools to do so, the understanding of when and how to communicate essential facts, and the knowledge to interpret and act on the data they receive. BNSF may be initially pointing to “miscommunication” as a means of laying the groundwork for a defense against a Federal Employers’ Liability Act or SAA lawsuit, but it and other railroads have high duties to make sure their worker can and do communicate while performing dangerous tasks.

Investigators from the Federal Railroad Administration and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration have begun looking into the causes of the deadly accident in BNSF’s Amarillo yard. Regardless of the agencies’ findings, something obviously went as wrong as it could and a man lost his life in a way that could almost definitely be prevented. When the problems with equipment or work procedures are eventually identified, BNSF and all other similarly situated rail operators must make changes aimed at ensuring such fatal accidents do not recur.

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About the Editors: The Virginia- and Carolina-based attorneys at Shapiro, Lewis & Appleton have long histories of representing railroad workers in FELA and other railroad injury cases and of helping victims of rail crossing accidents. Lawyers at our firm have served as chairmen of the railroad section of the American Association for Justice, the largest national victim’s injury attorney organization, and one of our attorneys wrote a major legal encyclopedia section on railroad safety litigation. Check out our railroad injury case results to see for yourself. Be sure to get your free reports about railroad injury, disease and wrongful death FELA cases: The Do’s and Don’ts When Injured at a Railroad — Yours FELA Rights and What Railroad Claim Agents Won’t Tell You (But You Must Know). Also, our railroad injury lawyers proudly moderate the Yardlimits Railroad Community Forum and donate to the Fallen Brother Fund.

By Rick Shapiro, FELA Attorney for Injured Rail Employees

An inexplicable crash involving three CSX freight trains in Indiana on Friday, January 7, 2011, sent two railroad workers to the hospital with injuries and caused a fire fueled by ethanol, diesel fuel and other chemicals. No one living or driving in the area surrounding the wreck and derailment reported injuries, but homes were briefly evacuated over concerns that fumes from the burning toxic substances could harm people.

In all, six crew members — engineers and conductors — were aboard the trains that collided in Porter County, northeast of Valparaiso, IN. News reports stated that four of the rail workers had no injuries, but also described the accident in terms like, “A CSX train that had been pulling mostly empty tankers of ethanol stopped on the tracks and was rear-ended by a second train … . A third train on parallel tracks then came up and struck the derailed cars.”

As a FELA attorney based in Virginia (VA) who has represented railroad workers injured in on-the-job accidents involving Amtrak, CSX and Norfolk Southern trains, rails and rail yards, I find it a little difficult to believe that only two people got hurt in the wreck and fire. Mostly, though, I’m confused about how the accident could have occurred at all.

It is not unusual for trains to share tracks or pass on parallel rail. It is also not unusual for freight lines to use one- or two-man crews and schedule departure and arrival times close together. It’s not even uncommon for a train to come to an unscheduled and unexpected stop in front of approaching trains.

What should never happen is that a rear-end collision, rail car derailment and debris-caused crash all occur because of tight scheduling, parallel routes and sudden stops. Rail companies such as Amtrak, CSX and NS must equip crews with communications equipment and training that ensures everyone aboard a train in danger of being in an accident with another train can keep informed of relative positions, hazards and unforeseen developments. My law firm has even successfully argued that one of our railroad employee clients suffered injuries in a head-on train wreck  because a dispatcher failed to follow proper procedures and regulations regarding radio communications.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board have begun looking into whether a communications breakdown caused by malfunctioning or missing equipment or improper training caused the crash in Indiana. If such findings are made, CSX could be found to be in violation of the Safety Appliance Act and related radio regulations. That would make the rail company liable for compensating the injured workers.

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About the Editors: The Virginia- and Carolina-based attorneys at Shapiro, Lewis & Appleton have long histories of representing railroad workers in FELA and other railroad injury cases and of helping victims of rail crossing accidents. Lawyers at our firm have served as chairmen of the railroad section of the American Association for Justice, the largest national victim’s injury attorney organization, and one of our attorneys wrote a major legal encyclopedia section on railroad safety litigation. Check out our railroad injury case results to see for yourself. Be sure to get your free reports about railroad injury, disease and wrongful death FELA cases: The Do’s and Don’ts When Injured at a Railroad — Yours FELA Rights and What Railroad Claim Agents Won’t Tell You (But You Must Know). Also, our railroad injury lawyers proudly moderate the Yardlimits Railroad Community Forum and donate to the Fallen Brother Fund.

By Rick Shapiro, Injured Railroad Worker Attorney and FELA Specialist

A conductor crewing a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train traveling through the small town of Navasota, Texas (TX), lost his life when he struck his head on the crossbeam of a railroad bridge and fell from the locomotive. According to a report from the United Transportation Union (UTU), to which the BNSF employee belonged, the conductor had been leaning over the running board of his moving locomotive to check a fuel level sight gauge when he was killed in this on-the-job accident.

The Bryan-College Station Eagle identified the deceased rail worker as 41-year-old Stacy Lee Rieger of Lumberton, TX, and noted that both BNSF and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the cause of the workplace accident. At the risk of being presumptuous, but also as an attorney who has represented railroad employees and their survivors in injury and wrongful death lawsuits for nearly 25 years, allow me to tell the rail company and the federal safety officials why the conductor was killed on the job: The sight gauge was located outside the crew cab, placed in such a position that he had to risk his safety to get an accurate reading.

Investigators may discover that the conductor performed his visual check at the wrong time or that he extended his head and body beyond the distance deemed safe for standard operating procedures. Neither finding would be relevant, however, because the gauge’s placement made checking it while under way inherently dangerous.

Throughout my decades of helping plaintiffs in Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA), Locomotive Inspection Act, and Safety Appliance Act cases, I have consistently held railroads to their strict liability for protecting workers. Rail corporation fail their employees when they supply poorly designed equipment, and that leaves companies such as BNSF and, in my hometown of Norfolk, Virginia (VA), Norfolk Southern, CSX and Amtrak, responsible for any workplace accident attributable to equipment that cannot be used or operated safely. And even if the equipment itself is fine, federal laws require all equipment to be safely accessible. Certainly, the location of the sight gauge would leave anyone shaking their heads bemusedly.

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About the Editors: The Virginia- and Carolina-based attorneys at Shapiro, Lewis & Appleton have long histories of representing railroad workers in FELA and other railroad injury cases and of helping victims of rail crossing accidents. Lawyers at our firm have served as chairmen of the railroad section of the American Association for Justice, the largest national victim’s injury attorney organization, and one of our attorneys wrote a major legal encyclopedia section on railroad safety litigation. Check out our railroad injury case results to see for yourself. Be sure to get your free reports about railroad injury, disease and wrongful death FELA cases: The Do’s and Don’ts When Injured at a Railroad — Yours FELA Rights and What Railroad Claim Agents Won’t Tell You (But You Must Know). Also, our railroad injury lawyers proudly moderate the Yardlimits Railroad Community Forum and donate to the Fallen Brother Fund.

By John Cooper, FELA Attorney in Virginia

My colleague Rick Shapiro has written a valuable article about the increased lung cancer risk faced by railroad workers who breath in toxic fumes on a daily basis while on the job. Study results published in 2010 show that long-term exposure to diesel fume exhausts from locomotives increased the likelihood of developing lung cancer by 317 percent. To learn more, check out “Info on Lung Cancer in Railroad Workers.”

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About the Editors: The Virginia (Va) and Carolina based railroad/FELA injury attorneys at Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton have a long history of representing railroad workers in FELA and other railroad injury cases. Railroad/FELA personal injury lawyers at our firm have served as chairmen of the Railroad section of the American Association for Justice, the largest national victim’s injury attorney organization. One of our railroad injury/crossing attorneys wrote a major attorney’s encyclopedia section on railroad safety litigation, found in law libraries nationwide. Check out our railroad injury case results to see for yourself. Be sure to get your free reports about railroad injury, disease and wrongful death FELA cases: The Do’s and Don’ts When Injured at a Railroad — Yours FELA Rights and What Railroad Claim Agents Won’t Tell You (But You Must Know). Also, our railroad injury lawyers proudly moderate the Yardlimits Railroad Community Forum and donate to the Fallen Brother Fund.

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By Rick Shapiro, Railroad Accident Attorney in Virginia

The Virginia Supreme Court on November 4, 2011, upheld the legality of a $26 million state grant to Norfolk Southern for the purpose of building a truck-to-rail facility in Montgomery County, VA.  Justices decided the goal of reducing tractor-trailer traffic on interstate highways in that region of the state merited funding. Gov. Bob McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli praised the court’s ruling, but residents of the Elliston Valley where the new intermodal rail yard will be located continue to have concerns.

Hopefully, the new depot will result in fewer trucks on Interstate 81, which would mean fewer trucking accident-related injuries and deaths.  This is a good step in the right direction of helping make our state’s highways safer.

Virginia has a rich history of railroads and railroad companies like Norfolk-based NS.  Also, CSX maintains offices in Richmond, and its state-registered agent operates out of Virginia Beach.  Lawyers with our Virginia personal injury firm also have long experience helping people hurt or made ill by railroad operations. My colleagues and I have represented engineers, conductors and others injured or sickened while working the rails.  Such employees are not protected by state workers’ compensation laws. Instead, they have the right to settle with the railroads, or sue them, under the Federal Employers Liability Act.  FELA claims can be filed in state or federal courts, depending on where the accident or disease claim arises.

In particular, our firm has helped railroad workers who have been diagnosed with asbestosis, asbestos-related lung disease, and cancers, including mesothelioma. Rail corporations have been heavy users of asbestos for insulation on engines, in shops and on rail cars.  We have handled these claims not only in Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia, South Carolina and other states.

Our railroad clients are delighted when railroad business like this creates more work, with the important caveat that the railroad must always keep the workplace safe for them as well.

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About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton is an injury law firm whose attorneys have long histories of representing railroad workers in FELA and other railroad injury cases.  Attorneys will our firm have served as chairmen of the Railroad section of the American Association for Justice. One of our attorneys wrote a major attorney’s encyclopedia section on railroad safety litigation. Check out our railroad injury case results to see for yourself. Our offices are in Virginia Beach and Hampton, Virginia (VA), and Elizabeth City, North Carolina (NC). Our lawyers also hold licenses to practice in South Carolina (SC), West Virginia (WV), Kentucky (KY), Florida (FL) and Washington, DC, and have handled hundreds of railroad injury and FELA cases throughout the eastern United States. Rick Shapiro and James Lewis were included in the 2011 issue of Best Lawyers in America. They, along with fellow attorney John M. Cooper, were also named 2011 Virginia Super Lawyers for Personal Injury Law, an honor which fewer than 5 percent of outstanding lawyers receive. We would like to send you one of our FREE reports about railroad injury and FELA cases, such as 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. Further, our lawyers proudly moderate the Yardlimits Railroad Community Forum and donate to the Fallen Brother Fund.

By John Cooper, FELA Plaintiff’s Attorney in Virginia

In his latest blog post to our firm’s Virginia personal attorneys’ website, my colleague Rick Shapiro reports that federal felony fraud charges have been filed in New York (NY) against former Long Island Railroad employees and two doctors who are being accused of inventing false diagnoses of disabling injuries and illnesses. The prosecutors estimate that the scheme has resulted in more than $300 million unearned payments from the Railroad Retire Board fund. Rick notes that a case like this makes it all the more difficult for rail workers who have legitimate work-related injury and wrongful death claims to receive the compensation they deserve. To read more, click over to “Fraudulent Disability Claims Make Life Hard for All Rail Employees.”

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About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton is an injury law firm whose attorneys have long histories of representing railroad workers in FELA and other railroad injury cases. Attorneys will our firm have served as chairmen of the Railroad section of the American Association for Justice. One of our attorneys wrote a major attorney’s encyclopedia section on railroad safety litigation. Check out our railroad injury case results to see for yourself. Our offices are in Virginia Beach and Hampton, Virginia (VA), and Elizabeth City, North Carolina (NC). Our lawyers also hold licenses to practice in South Carolina (SC), West Virginia (WV), Kentucky (KY), Florida (FL) and Washington, DC, and have handled hundreds of railroad injury and FELA cases throughout the eastern United States. Rick Shapiro and James Lewis were included in the 2011 issue of Best Lawyers in America. They, along with fellow attorney John M. Cooper, were also named 2011 Virginia Super Lawyers for Personal Injury Law, an honor which fewer than 5 percent of outstanding lawyers receive. We would like to send you one of our FREE reports about railroad injury and FELA cases, such as 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. Further, our lawyers proudly moderate the Yardlimits Railroad Community Forum and donate to the Fallen Brother Fund.

By Rick Shapiro, Virginia FELA Attorney

When a railroad worker suffers an injury while on the job and reports it, he or she almost always has to fill out a document called an injury report. Some of the questions asked on this form relate to what happened to cause the injury and who may have been at fault. Rail workers must be careful while filling out this report, especially if the rail worker may need to pursue damages through a FELA claim. To learn more about the injury report form and what to do with these types of questions, take a look at this article written by FELA lawyer John Cooper: “Virginia FELA Lawyer Examines a Railroad Injury Form.”

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About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton is an injury law firm whose attorneys have long histories of representing railroad workers in FELA and other railroad injury cases.  Attorneys will our firm have served as chairmen of the Railroad section of the American Association for Justice. One of our attorneys wrote a major attorney’s encyclopedia section on railroad safety litigation. Check out our railroad injury case results to see for yourself. Our offices are in Virginia Beach and Hampton, Virginia (VA), and Elizabeth City, North Carolina (NC). Our lawyers also hold licenses to practice in South Carolina (SC), West Virginia (WV), Kentucky (KY), Florida (FL) and Washington, DC, and have handled hundreds of railroad injury and FELA cases throughout the eastern United States. Rick Shapiro and James Lewis were included in the 2011 issue of Best Lawyers in America. They, along with fellow attorney John M. Cooper, were also named 2011 Virginia Super Lawyers for Personal Injury Law, an honor which fewer than 5 percent of outstanding lawyers receive. We would like to send you one of our FREE reports about railroad injury and FELA cases, such as 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. Further, our lawyers proudly moderate the Yardlimits Railroad Community Forum and donate to the Fallen Brother Fund.

By John Cooper, FELA Plaintiff’s Attorney in Virginia

The Association of American Railroads has issued a third warning about intentional acts of vandalism in which convenience handles, steps and ladders on Autorack freight rail cars have been sawed through, making the equipment dangerous to use. The group originally alerted railroaders about this safety risk in 2009, but newly vandalized cars have been discovered in 2011.

A vandalized handle on an Autorack rail car

AAR is urging anyone who learns of the vandalism to “”pass it on to all co-workers, loading and unloading personnel, shop personnel, trainmen, contractors and all other personnel that may be working with Autorack equipment.” The organization also advises all crew member to closely inspect any recently added cars or cars returning to service after long rest periods for damage to handles, handholds, steps and ladders.

As a FELA plaintiff’s lawyer based in Virginia (VA) who has represented rail workers injured by inadequate or defective safety equipment, I find it encouraging that the warnings about the intentionally damaged rail cars have come from AAR. The association is the leading trade group for Class I freight railroads — particularly BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific —  and Amtrak. This means all major rail corporations are aware of the danger posed to their employees.

Both the Federal Employers’ Liability Act and the Safety Appliance Act make railroads strictly liable for injuries to and deaths of employees who suffer from accidents caused by defective equipment company supervisors and executives knew or should have known about. In the real world outside the courthouse, then, the federal laws hold railroads responsible for identifying and fixing problems with equipment or, failing that, responsible for compensating victims of the companies’ negligence in making trains, rail cars, tracks and rail yards safer.

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About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton is an injury law firm whose attorneys have long histories of representing railroad workers in FELA and other railroad injury cases. Attorneys will our firm have served as chairmen of the Railroad section of the American Association for Justice. One of our attorneys wrote a major attorney’s encyclopedia section on railroad safety litigation. Check out our railroad injury case results to see for yourself. Our offices are in Virginia Beach and Hampton, Virginia (VA), and Elizabeth City, North Carolina (NC). Our lawyers also hold licenses to practice in South Carolina (SC), West Virginia (WV), Kentucky (KY), Florida (FL) and Washington, DC, and have handled hundreds of railroad injury and FELA cases throughout the eastern United States. Rick Shapiro and James Lewis were included in the 2011 issue of Best Lawyers in America. They, along with fellow attorney John M. Cooper, were also named 2011 Virginia Super Lawyers for Personal Injury Law, an honor which fewer than 5 percent of outstanding lawyers receive. We would like to send you one of our FREE reports about railroad injury and FELA cases, such as 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. Further, our lawyers proudly moderate the Yardlimits Railroad Community Forum and donate to the Fallen Brother Fund.