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.

EJL

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.

EJL

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 Rail Employee Attorney

For the fourth time since 2009, Western states freight railroad giant Union Pacific has been sanctioned by federal authorities for illegally firing an injured rail employee after the worker reported an on-the-job injury. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued its latest whistleblower ruling against UP on December 20, 2011, writing in a press release that the rail corporation must immediately rehire the Idaho (ID)-based worker and pay the man $300,000 in compensation, back wages and punitive damages.

Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Dr. David Michaels said that for all railroads, “this case sends a clear message that OSHA will not tolerate retaliation against workers for reporting a work-related injury. … The safety of all workers is endangered when employers intimidate injured workers so that they do not report injuries.”

How soon the rail worker can return to his job and collect his whistleblower judgment remains unclear. Union Pacific pledged to appeal OSHA’s decision, claiming that separate investigations into how and why it fired the injured employee less than a month after he reported his injury found no wrongdoing by the company.

As a Virginia (VA) railroad accident and FELA attorney who has helped dozens of railroaders receive compensation for injuries they suffered while working, I have no problem with UP exercising its right to appeal. I also strongly suspect that the rail corporation will lose. Courts and regulators have long — and invaluable to rail employees — histories of upholding strict liability provision of laws such as the Federal Employers’ Liability Act and whistleblower protections under the Federal Railroad Safety Act.

To summarize how federal labor laws work to protect railroad employees for Amtrak, BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern and every other rail corporation as simply as possible: Rail companies must provide safe workplaces, properly working equipment and adequate training. When preventable accidents occur and on-the-job injuries result, railroads cannot deny injured workers’ their rights to report the incidents, receive fair compensation or keep their jobs after drawing attention to unsafe conditions.

EJL

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.

EJL

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, Railroad Crossing Accident Victims’ Attorney

Even as the New Jersey Safety at Railroad Crossings Leadership Oversight Committee was holding its first-ever meeting on November 9, 2011, a pedestrian in Hamilton, NJ, became the 20th person in the Garden State to lose his life this year by being struck by a passenger train at a grade crossing. During 2010, New Jersey Transit, Amtrak and a few freight trains struck and killed 28 people in the state. In nearly every case, the pedestrian had intentionally or accidentally walked in the path of the train, often by ignoring lowered crossing gates or trespassing on railroad trestles.

Wasting no time, committee members representing state and federal agencies such as the New Jersey State Police, NJ Department of Education, National Highway Transportation Safety Administration and Federal Railroad Administration issued a preliminary plan to reverse the trend toward growing numbers of pedestrians dying while crossing tracks. The three-pronged approach calls for educating students of all ages about grade crossing safety, stepping up enforcement of anti-trespassing laws and making it more difficult for people to get onto tracks and rail beds by repairing and erecting fences and crossing gates.

Most importantly, the committee is reaching out to rail workers such as engineers, trackmen and rail yard employees to identify patterns in trespassing activities, increase reporting of trespassing incidents and develop strategies for preventing trespassing. Involving rail employees in the effort to lower pedestrian fatalities is essential both because railroaders have invaluable knowledge on the subject and because being involved in a crossing accident in which a pedestrian dies often has a shattering effect on the train’s crew.

This report on a grade crossing accident in which a car’s driver was killed describes the terrible mental toll fatal crashes take on locomotive engineers and other train crew members:

As a railroad accident injury and wrongful death attorney practicing in Virginia (VA), I work at a law firm whose clients have included both railroad employees and members of the public who have been involved in grade crossing accidents. I know firsthand that only bad things happen when trains collide with vehicles or pedestrians, and I hope the effort to prevent such tragedies in New Jersey succeeds.

Trains cannot stop on a dime, or even on a 70-story bank headquarters building. Approaching a crossing, bridge or stretch of track with a pedestrian in the way leaves rank-and-file conductors and engineers no real option for avoiding the crash that will likely kill the person on foot.  Railroads and track owners need to make sure gates, lights and warning signs are adequate and working properly. At the same time, transportation crews and those involved in train operations have a vital role to play in making crossings safer for themselves, for drivers and for pedestrians by sharing their knowledge about crossing hazards and how to mitigate them.

EJL

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.

EJL

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, Railroad Worker Illness and FELA Attorney

Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific, the two largest freight railroads providing service to ports in California (CA), have been sued by a coalition of environmental groups who claim that the diesel fumes emitted by the trucks, heavy equipment and locomotives at the companies’ rail yards pose an unacceptable cancer and lung disease risk to railroad employees and people living and working in communities around the yards.

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, which is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit,

Millions of Californians are exposed to toxic levels of pollution from BNSF and UP’s operations. The California Air Resources Board has found that communities even 8 miles away from some of BNSF and UP’s rail yards suffer from increased cancer risk. … Almost every week, the scientific community releases new studies showing the toxicity of diesel exhaust, which is associated with premature death, cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory disease, and even obesity and diabetes. Some researchers have even found a correlation between diesel exhaust and premature birth and lower IQ in children.

The East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice and the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice are also suing the railroads on behalf of people’s who have reported health problems as a result of their exposure to diesel fumes.

In a blog post about the federal suit, the NRDC cites studies that indicate recent efforts by BNSF and UP to clean up operation at their California yards have still left some nearby residents at risks for cancers and other illnesses that are 50 times higher than state standards. A key goal of the legal action is to have particulates in diesel exhaust declared a solid waste that is subject to the same federal regulations as hazardous solid waste, just as unburned diesel fuel itself is. Should that happen, all railroads — including Amtrak, CSX and Norfolk Southern — would be affected.

The lawsuit is timely. I wrote earlier in 2011 that researchers have begun tracking diesel emissions from a Los Angeles-area BNSF rail yard while at the same time recording health problems for people living in the neighborhood bordering the yard. Shortly after I posted that blog, one of my Virginia-based FELA attorneys reported that formaldehyde in diesel exhaust had been definitively categorized as a carcinogen by federal health and workplace safety officials.

Rail employees have some of the heaviest daily exposures to diesel exhaust.While the negative health effects of long-term exposure to diesel fumes have long been recognized by doctors, regulators and lawyers, most railroad workers have remained completely unaware that numerous carcinogens are contained in diesel exhaust. Awareness of “diesel asthma” has also been growing, and I have helped a conductor who developed asthma and became unable to work after spending years breathing exhaust from diesel-powered locomotives receive a substantial FELA settlement from the rail company that had employed him.

It’s too soon to know how the environmental groups’ lawsuit against BNSF and Union Pacific will turn out, or even whether the plaintiffs will have their day in court. However, any effort that calls attention to the health risks from diesel fume exposure has the welcome potential to make railroad work for conductors, engineers, carmen trackmen and others safer, as well as living and working near rail yards less dangerous.

EJL

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, Railroad Accident Attorney in Virginia

The intense fire and evacuation of the small town of Tiskilwa, Illinois (IL), after an Iowa Interstate Railroad freight train hauling ethanol for Archer Daniels Midlands derailed made national news in early October 2011. While attention-grabbing video of the conflagration faded from television and computer screens within 24 hours, the environmental impacts of the accident are likely to persist for years.

Not all the ethanol was destroyed in the fire — to say nothing of any spilled oil, diesel fuel or chemicals used by firefighters to suppress the flames. As a result, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is asking Iowa Interstate to fund the installation of wells and testing equipment to ensure that the quality of water in nearby creeks has not been compromised. The state’s EPA has also asked the Illinois attorney general to order the railroad to pay for cleaning up the soil around the area of the wreck.

Of particular concern are two chemical components of ethanol fuel, ethyl acetate and 1,1-diethoxyethane. Both of the substances can cause irritation to people’s skin and lungs, and large exposures to 1,1-diethoxyethane fumes can cause suffocation. The effects of the chemicals on fish, birds and other wildlife are similar but most likely to be heightened because of the animals’ small size and constant exposure to the chemicals in the places where they live.

News reports of the ethanol train derailment all repeat some version of the statement “No deaths or injuries occurred as a result of the incident.” What that sentence means is that no residents of  Tiskilwa got hurt. I’ve yet to see any mention of whether the engineer, conductor or other member of the train crew suffered injuries, which is a likely occurrence any time a locomotive or string of rail cars derails.

As a FELA plaintiff’s attorney based in Virginia (VA), I devote much of my practice to helping railroad workers or their surviving family members receive compensation from rail companies whose negligence caused the employees to develop diseases due to exposure to harmful chemicals. The short- and long-term health risks from a derailment and fire like the one in Illinois are almost incalculable. I hope Iowa Interstate Railroad will meet its responsibility to pay for the needed environmental cleanup and monitoring, Doing so will help prevent greater problems in the future.

EJL

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 Attorney in Virginia

As a Virginia-based attorney who specializes in representing railroad employees who get injured on the job and helping rail workers’ families recover fair compensation when a loved one loses his or her life due to a rail company’s negligence, I make it my business to stay up to date on accidents in rail yards, on tracks and aboard trains. Still, I was taken aback by the first line of an e-mail I just received from a fellow layer who handles personal injury and wrongful deaths cases brought under the provisions of the Federal Employers Liability Act, or FELA.

Here’s that shocking sentence: “During the first six months of 2011, 37 serious injuries occurred during switching operations, resulting in three fatalities and eight amputations, while over the past two years, five rail workers have died in accidents involving rolling rail equipment.”

What this means is far too many lives have been shattered and ended by accidents in which rail workers have been struck by or crushed between rail cars and locomotives that have rolled back into each other or collided. Those dangers are ever-present for the engineers, conductors, switchmen and trackmen who must go between rolling stock to connect car and engines.

Organizations representing railroad employees such as the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the United Transportation Union have long recognized the safety risks and have worked with the Federal Railroad Administration since the early 1990s to reduce the number of rollback and crush injuries and deaths. Now, the FRA has issued a 2011-2012 Safety Advisory about how rail employees can protect themselves while working between cars and locomotives.

As published in the October 11, 2011, Federal Register, the advisory urges workers and railroad corporations to

• Review current operating and safety rules that specifically address both remote control locomotive and conventional switching operations that require employees to go between rolling equipment, and determine whether those rules provide adequate protection to employees or need to be updated or revised.
• Develop, implement, and monitor sound communication protocols that require employees on multiperson switch crews to notify their fellow crewmembers when the need arises to enter between two pieces of rolling equipment — regardless of whether the employee is the primary RCO [remote control operator] or working on a conventional crew.
• Review the Switching Operations Fatality Analysis (SOFA) Safety Recommendation 1, Adjusting Knuckles, Adjusting Drawbars, and Installing End of Train Devices [please follow the link] and communicate its procedures implementing that recommendation to employees working in yards or other locations where the possibility of entering between rolling equipment exists.
• Convey to employees that their own personal safety is their responsibility and that railroad management supports and encourages those employees that make safety their number one priority, regardless of their immediate assignment.
• Convey to employees that they should encourage fellow employees to perform their tasks safely and in compliance with established railroad rules and procedures.

The recommendations and reminders from FRA apply equally to Amtrak, BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific and all other long- and short-haul passenger and freight railroads. And while the advice for workers to take responsibility for their own on-the-job safety is apt, the rail companies truly do bear the ultimate responsibility for developing and enforcing procedures and practices that put employees at the least risk for suffering injuries or getting killed.

EJL

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, Railroad Worker Injury Attorney

Railroads from Amtrak to Union Pacific are hiring at a record pace despite the stagnant economy. As explained in a McClatchy-Tribune News Service report from September 27, 2011, every rail company from BNSF and CSX to Norfolk Southern is feeling an acute need for new brakemen, conductors, engineers, trackmen and rail yard workers because the corporations’ workforces are aging and retiring and also because freight and passenger volumes have increased steadily over the past 5 years.

The news that any industry is currently adding employees is certainly welcome. As an experienced rail worker injury attorney who has represented numerous clients in FELA cases, however, I can’t help but have some concerns over what the influx of thousands of new rail employees will mean for the safety of the people who operate and maintain trains, tracks and railroad crossings and signals.

Ensuring workplace safety depends on experience and training, and no matter how well trained a person is to do his or her job, experience always counts for more when responding to dangerous situations. In fact, an analysis of fatal and nonfatal work-related injuries reported to the U.S. federal government and cited by the PBS documentary series Frontline revealed that “new employees, regardless of age, experience a high and disproportionate number of injuries.”

Veteran rail workers are at risk for being injured on the job, of course, especially for suffering repetitive stress injuries. But the likelihood of a catastrophic accident such as a collision or derailment that causes a severe injury or death increases for new hires. Railroads must do all they can to prevent such incidents by providing classroom and hands-on instruction, pairing inexperienced employees with experts in mentoring relationships, and continually evaluating new hires’ performance and targeting training toward strengthening deficiencies.

EJL

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.