By John Cooper, FELA Attorney in Virginia

Even in this day and age, many of the track switches that make it possible for trains to change direction and get to their destinations must be operated manually. Switchman remains an essential position and job description all along the millions of railroad tracks across the United States, especially in rail yards and at side tracks leading to factories and warehouses.

The nature of switch work, though, often puts the people who dismount trains and manually operate switching devices at danger for everything from slip and fall injuries to being hit by locomotives or rail cars. An even greater risk is posed by mechanical malfunctioning of a switch itself. Two recent cases illustrate this.

In Missouri (MO), a switchman who had worked with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway suffered an irreparable tear to the disc between two of the vertebrae in his lower back when the switch he was working first jammed, then snapped back into him. Unable to return to work, he filed an injury claim against BNSF under the provisions of the Federal Employers’ Liability Act. His attorneys, Charles Gordon Jr. and John Peak of Hubbell Law Firm, were able to help the man receive a judgment of $300,000. The money will help the man transition to a new career.

A similar accident befell a Belt Railway switchman as he was working at a junction between the main road and a siding leading to an Exxon Mobil plant in Chicago, Illinois (IL). A sticky switch sprung toward the man and severely damaged his lower spine when it hit him. Two spinal fusions later, the former switchman remains in pain and unable to work. A FELA claim aided by Scott Sands of Sands and Associates allowed the man to receive $2.1 million for his debilitating injuries.

As a Virginia-based FELA attorney representing primarily employees of Norfolk Southern and CSX, I congratulate my fellow railroad worker injury plaintiff’s attorney for helping their clients receive compensation for their on-the-job injuries. I am also not surprised that both BNSF and Belt used flatly unbelievable defense in order to deny liability and shift blame to the injured employees.

For instance, BNSF argued that the switchman should not have operated the switch — that is, should not have done his job — because the man had heard the particular switch was difficult to operate. This argument is contradicted by the FELA law, which abolishes the defense of assumption of the risk,. What this means for rail workers is that if the railroad orders you to do a job, then the company is solely responsible for any resulting injuries from doing that job.

For its part, Belt said the malfunctioning switch couldn’t have hurt its employee because the man already had back problems. Every company in the railroad industry knows the danger of poorly working switches posing a risk of injury to the trainmen, conductors or engineers  who much throw the switches. Additionally, switches are heavy, awkward machines even when properly maintained. The known hazard for back injury caused the companies to replace the old style of switch with  safer bow handled equipment in many yards.

Railroads must protect the health and lives of their workers. When rail companies fail to meet this duty, they must be held accountable. I’m glad that happened in these two cases.

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

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway has been ordered by a jury to pay a Billings, Montana (MT), railroad engineer who suffered a permanent back injury after tripping over a radio headset cord while operating a BNSF locomotive. Ten years after the 2001 workplace accident, the man continues to suffer high degrees of pain and may have to take medical retirement because of the herniated discs in his back.

One thing I found particularly interesting about this case is how unprofessionally lawyers and executives for BNSF acted. I learned from the engineer’s attorneys, Montana-based Jon Moyers and Russ Yerger, that the defense

• Inappropriately contacted the engineer’s treating physician
• Got rid of the radio cord so it couldn’t be admitted into evidence
• Tried to hide other evidence and  misrepresent statements already given as part of the discovery process, and
• Took disciplinary actions against the engineer that were clearly related to the injured man’s chronic pain from his on-the-job injury and the filling of his lawsuit for compensation.

Railroads often try to deny liability for employees’ injuries, and my Virginia (VA) and North  Carolina (NC) FELA attorney colleagues and I have written about several cases of rail companies retaliating against and trying to intimidate workers who report workplace injuries and unsafe working conditions. It is in the interests of corporations to not fairly compensate its employee’s for harms the corporations caused or allowed to happen.

I’m glad BNSF was not successful in deterring this engineer from exercising his legal rights and holding the railroad accountable. I congratulate my fellow railroad employee injury attorneys on securing this verdict for the engineer.

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 Kevin Duffan, Virginia Mass Transit Accident Attorney

My colleague John Cooper reported recently on our firm’s Virginia personal injury website that a man was  injured at a light rail crossing when he apparently missed train signals to yield the right of way. John mentioned train crashes sometimes take place when a driver turns into the path of a train and suggested to watch our videos on locomotive safety.

LC

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, Virginia FELA Plaintiff’s Attorney

Injuries may have been avoided when the crew of a Norfolk Southern freight train hauling agricultural products intentionally derailed near Ridgeway, Virginia (VA), on the night of August 13, 2011. The engineer and other rail employees felt they had no choice but to jump the tracks when they spotted a large object that had been placed on the rails. Knowing a derailment might cause them injuries, they took that smaller risk over the greater danger from hitting the obstruction.

According to a report on the intentional derailing in the Martinsville Bulletin, the crew did well to keep most of the rail cars on the track when they steered the locomotive off its course. This prevented a spill and limited property damage. Most importantly, none of the crew members got killed. Railroads always claim that no injuries occurred before really knowing if or how badly their workers may be hurt.

If you suddenly got thrown around in a metal box connected to hundreds of tons of shifting weight, don’t you think you might be injured at least a little? But before you even got to go home, supervisors would circle and encourage you not to go to the doctor unless you were bleeding out of your eyes. A doctor or emergency room visit would create paperwork and threaten everyone’s no-injury bonuses, the higher-ups would argue.

Police determined that the object, which they did not identify, had been set on the tracks on purpose. By the Thursday following the accident, three boys between the ages of 12 and 14 had been arrested and charged with the class 6 felony of obstructing a railroad. Even though the children apparently did not want to injure or kill anyone, they could still face penalties of up 5 years in jail and fines of $2,500.

Those potential punishments may strike some as harsh, but if the boys did try to sabotage the NS train and its crew, what the youngsters did was no less than put the engineer’s, conductor’s and trackman’s lives at risk. Train derailments, whether intentional or accidental, often injure and kill people on the train and others living, working or just nearby when a train leaves its tracks.

As a Virginia personal injury attorney who has represented railroad employees injured on the job, I’m glad that no one died in the accident near Ridgeway, VA. I hope that anyone learning about the threat to life and limb created by the incident will refrain from doing anything similar 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, Virginia FELA Plaintiff’s Attorney

In a July 20, 2011, conference call, top CSX officials reported record profits while glossing over the deaths of three company employees and injuries to dozens of other rail workers during the second fiscal quarter of its fiscal year.

Within two minutes, CSX Chairman, President and CEO Michael J. Ward announced, “Operating income [profit on more than $3 billion in revenue] was up 21 percent to a record $926 million.” Well after that, David A. Brown, CSX’s chief operating officer, noted, “We were deeply saddened by the loss of three employees.” A slide shown while Brown was speaking indicated that CSX had a personal injury rate of 0.89 and a train accident rate of 2.37.

Brown did not explain what those rates meant, but the Federal Railroad Administration typically records injuries and accidents as a percentage of incidents per million miles traveled. FRA data show that, in real numbers, CSX saw 80 train accidents through June 15 in 2011. The most serious of those occurred in Union City, North (NC), on May 24. A locomotive engineer and a conductor died when two freight trains collided. Two other train crew members suffered injuries.

Another CSX worker lost his life in a Waycross, Georgia (GA), rail yard on April 29. One of the company’s rail cars turned over onto the man’s pickup truck.

CSX has some justification for pointing to quarter-to-quarter decreases and a general downward trend in on-the-job injuries for it rail workers, but the corporate executives’ performance in the most recent call to investors shows that they prize profits over protection of workers. This attitude appears to be shared across the railroad injury. Safety is claimed as a core mission and value, but spending on preventing accidents and limiting exposures to toxic substances always seems to take a back seat to using money taken in to take in more money.

Working in Virginia Beach, VA, as a FELA attorney — minutes from rail terminals in Norfolk and Newport News that receive and discharge dozens of Norfolk Southern and CSX trains each week — I know rail employees will never face zero risks to life and limb. But I would welcome a presentation to railroad investors in which a rail company stated it had taken significant charges against quarterly or yearly profits specifically to upgrade its safety equipment and procedures.

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 Richard N. Shapiro, Virginia Railroad Injury Attorney

Diesel locomotives for freight trains and passenger trains, like diesel engines for large commercial trucks, generate fumes that can cause cancer and respiratory illnesses such as asthma among railroad employees. Doctors, companies, workers and judges and juries have long recognized this. In fact, over my nearly 30 years as a Virginia-based personal injury attorney representing rail employees in FELA cases brought by victims of lung diseases caused by exposure to diesel fumes, has convinced me that breathing in locomotive and truck engine exhaust day after day can be a s dangerous to people’s health and lives can be as dangerous as working around radioactivity and asbestos.

This BNSF rail yard in San Barnardino, CA, has been identified as one of the most polluted and toxic train depots in the United States.

Similar conclusions now seem to be dawning on public health officials and researchers, along with the realization that living close to busy rail yards can be as potentially deadly as working on and around trains. Diesel fumes and other cancer-causing and toxic chemicals do not respect boundaries such as chain  link fences separating trunk lines and roundhouses from neighborhoods filled with houses and families with children.

What got me thinking along these lines was an announcement by researchers at Loma Linda University in California that they were launching a two-year investigation into the health of residents living within feet of one of the largest rail yard on the West Coast. Working in coordination with the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the environmental and medical scientists will assess whether cancer, stroke, asthma and death rates that are as much as 250 times higher than in other areas of California can be linked to operations at the BNSF yard in a neighborhood in the northwest corner of San Bernardino, CA.

I’m no scientist, but I suspect the findings will show that living near a busy rail yard full of running diesel locomotives and served by a constant stream of tractor-trailers and semis with diesel engines causes avoidable illnesses and deaths. As a Business Week article on the planned study notes,

Diesel exhaust contains tiny particles that can penetrate deep into the lungs, carrying with it a variety of toxins that have been linked to acute bronchitis, lung disease, heart attacks and other ailments. Exposure to this smog is especially dangerous for children whose lungs are still developing and the elderly, whose immune systems may be compromised.

Those risks exists — and the findings from the San Bernardino study will be as applicable — for any rail yard operated by Amtrak, BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific and all other railroad companies. Any risk of occupational illness faced by a conductor, engineer, brakeman, switchman or trainman is faced equally by an adult or child who has a similar levels of exposure to diesel fumes and other toxic substances involved in railroad work.

Whatever rail operators can do to make working in rail yards safer, the companies also need to do to make living, playing and going to school near a yard 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 Randy Appleton, Railroad Injury/FELA Attorney

A local television report on a grade crossing crash between a Union Pacific freight train and a tractor-trailer hauling a flatbed in northeastern Arkansas focuses on how the truck driver escaped injury, only spilling his coffee. The video below also makes passing mention of several similar collisions between semis and trains at that particular track-highway intersection, which has no warning lights or gates.

For more information, go to KAIT-8

A newspaper account of the collision at the intersection of U.S. 49 and Greene County Road 805 just north of Paragould, AR, in The (Columbus, IN) Republic, however, tell the fuller story of an injury to the conductor aboard the UP train. The extent of the injuries suffered by the railroad employee are not known, but the accident illustrates many of the risks for injuries and death conductors, engineers and other crew members face as they take their trains through multiple poorly marked and largely uncontrolled grade crossings each day.

First, the truck driver drove his rig into the path of the oncoming train because he had no immediate warning of the impending danger. With no lights or gates in place, the driver could only have seen the approaching train if he had stopped and looked both ways down the track. While he may have done this — reports are unclear — the driver explained that the sun blinded him to the extent that he never saw the train. Trees and brush also obscure part of the rail right-of-way.

Second, once a car or truck is on the tracks, it is often far too late for conductors and engineers to stop and avoid a crash. The semi driver may not have seen the train, but it’s likely that the UP saw the truck. Even so, the crash was all but an inevitability once the truck driver made his vehicle a target.

Last, the tractor-trailer may have sustained the most damage from this crash, but impacts between big rigs and trains are felt quite strongly in locomotives. Any broken bones, head or neck injury, or brain trauma a person might sustain in a traffic accident can be sustained just as easily by a conductor, engineer or train crew member in an accident at a grade crossing.

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 Richard N. Shapiro, FELA and Railroad Injury Attorney

A BNSF switchman who in November 2008 had to jump from a moving locomotive to avoid even more serious injuries or possibly death in a rail yard crash, came away from the wreck with an ankle so injured he is now considering amputation to prevent further complications.

On February 4, 2010, a jury in Los Angeles, CA, awarded the man $4.9 million for past and future medical expenses and suffering. BNSF was found at fault for the collision because radio communication equipment between the switchman and an engineer failed to operate correctly.

My colleagues and I have decades of experience representing switchmen, brakemen and conductors who have suffered on-the-job injuries or developed occupational illnesses such as cancer, asbestosis or mesothelioma. Working with clients, we see on an almost daily basis how dangerous trains, tracks and rail yards are — whether a person is an employee of Amtrak, BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern or Union Pacific.

News reports do not detail the strategy used by the plaintiff’s attorney, but do note that railroad employees cannot receive compensation or bring suit under standard workplace safety laws. It may be that BNSF was held responsible under obligations spelled out in the Locomotive Safety Inspection Act, or LSIA.

Regardless, the important news is a rail employee injured on-the-job due to his employers’ alleged negligence was able to hold the responsible party to account.

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.

By Randy Appleton, Railroad Accident/FELA Lawyer

I watched a video of a railroad work crew replacing a railroad bed and was amazed by the advancements in technology. Many of the rail workers were essentially supervising as high-powered machines did much of the heavy lifting.

You’d think with all of these technological advancements, railroad worker injuries would be a rare occurrence. Unfortunately, this is not the case. With high-powered machinery comes the risk of a defect and/or negligent care of the machinery by the railroad. Our firm has handled numerous cases with rail workers suffering serious injuries due to equipment defect or negligent care.

For example, we represented a railroad locomotive engineer who was mounting a locomotive vertical stairwell, one of the vertical hand holds suddenly broke away from the locomotive, sending him sprawling backwards where he injured his knee and shoulder. Not only was one shoulder injured by impact with the ground, but the other shoulder was injured when our client was jerked, and had to free his grip. Our client underwent emergency treatment and later has arthroscopic surgery on both his right shoulder and his left knee. We knew the railroad was liable for our client’s injuries and were able to secure a settlement that helped take care of our client’s medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

Another example was a railroad conductor we represented who suffered an injury due to an insecure handhold/ladder on a train car causing a serious back injury. Our client had to undergo back surgery and have epidural steroid injections in his back. Our client was unable to return to his job as a railroad conductor, and suffered substantial lost earnings and lost earning capacity because of the physical restrictions after the back surgery. Our firm worked for two years on this case and we were able to attain a settlement for our client to help cover his bills and ensure he had the necessary funds to support himself and his family during this difficult time period.

These cases illustrate that, even with newfangled technology, accidents still occur in and around railroads. 

About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton is an injury law firm with a long history of representing hundreds of railroad workers in FELA/ 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, FL and DC and have handled railroad injury and FELA cases throughout the eastern U.S.  We would like to send you one of our FREE reports about railroad injury and FELA cases, including Do’s and Don’ts When Injured at a Railroad – The Railroad Worker’s FELA Rights and What Railroad Claim Agents Won’t Tell You (But You Must Know). We are ready to talk to you by phone right now—we provide free initial confidential injury case consultations, so call us toll free at 1-800-752-0042 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.   PA

By Randy E. Appleton, Attorney

When a railroad injury/accident involves release of toxic or hazardous fumes/smoke, a permanent lung/breathing disease or chemical inhalation injury may result. The cause may be a crash, derailment or even a defect or malfunction on an engine, affecting the engineer or conductor, or even a by-stander.  The Locomotive Inspection Act requires that railroads keep engines in good working order and most defects are violations of the federal regulations.  My colleague Richard N. Shapiro wrote an interesting article fully discussing engine explosions and the release of toxic fumes and smoke, as well as the locomotive inspection act requirements that apply to railroad activities.