By Rick Shapiro, Railroad Injury Attorney

Federal laws ranging from the Americans With Disabilities Act to the Pregnancy Discrimination Act make it illegal for any business in any industry to use may kinds of information in workers’ private medical files to make hiring, promotion and firing decisions. As corollaries to those rules, employers cannot compel employees to disclose any information about illnesses, injuries, health conditions, doctor visits or ongoing therapies when those situations are not related to workers’ job performance.

Freight railroad giant BNSF Railway intentionally violated all its employees’ federal medical privacy protections when, starting January 1, 2012, the railroad required engineers, conductors, trackmen, rail yard workers and office personnel to share every piece of health information with immediate supervisors. In a discrimination complaint filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen noted that BNSF’s policy on medical disclosure extended to ”medical conditions and/or events that occur or are diagnosed while they are away from work … even if there is no reasonable basis for believing the condition or event has any impact on the employee’s ability to perform his/her job, and even when the employee’s own doctor has placed no limitations on the employee’s job activities.”

The United Transportation Union, along with eight other groups representing rail workers across the United States, also petitioned the EEOC to compel BNSF to rescind the medical reporting policy. The organizations argued that requiring employees to “share doctor’s notes, diagnostic test results and hospital discharge summaries” could serve no other purpose than providing the rail corporation non-job-related health information it could use to make employment decisions.

BNSF announced that it was rescinding the policy — officially listed a Rule 26.3.1 in its employee handbook – in early April. A company spokeswoman told the Lincoln (NE) Journal Star that BNSF wanted only to protect other workers and the public from employees whose health problems might make them unsafe. In that same article, though, a different railroad representative was quoted as confirming to Progressive Railroading that BNSF wanted the private medical records for “expeditious, confidential handling of fitness-for-duty reviews.”

Again: Numerous federal laws explicitly prohibit the use of large categories of medical information for making employment decisions. BNSF was definitely violating workers’ privacy when issuing and enforcing Rule 26.3.1. It attempted to justify the illegal and discriminatory policy by claiming employees had in the past put other people at risk for injury or death because they had health problems they had not disclosed to the company. Such a claim asserted without specific evidence cannot be taken on faith; at the same time, the company’s defense for flouting health privacy laws absolutely convinces everyone that the company’s executives do not trust employees to be honest or value others’ safety.

As a personal injury attorney who regularly helps railroad workers who develop occupational illnesses and get injured on the job. I also strongly suspect that BNSF wanted access to employees’ complete medical records so it could use the information to claim that any work-related injury or disease was caused by a “preexisting condition.” I already know railroads will use just about any defense to avoid liability, so having all of a hurt or sick worker’s medical records would almost certainly be a temptation BNSF could not resist.

I am equally convinced that if BNSF’s Rule 26.3.1 had withstood union objections and EEOC review, Amtrak, CSX, Norfolk Southern and every other rail corporation would soon require their workers to share every piece of health information. That won’t happen for now, but the railroads must be watched closely for their next effort to violate employees’ health privacy rights.

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 donate to the Fallen Brother Fund.

By Rick Shapiro, Railroad Cancer Victims’ Attorney

When writing recently about a long-term study that revealed a strong link between on-the-job exposure to diesel exhaust and lung cancer deaths, I mentioned that the data had been suppressed for more than 15 years. I didn’t go into the details of the efforts to keep the truth from workers and general public because I felt it was most important to highlight the researchers conclusion that

if the diesel exhaust/lung cancer relation is causal, the public health burden of the carcinogenicity of inhaled diesel exhaust in workers and in populations of urban areas with high levels of diesel exposure may be substantial.

In short, I wanted to call attention to the reality that railroad employees, truck drivers and people living near rail yards, ports and truck depots face significant risks to their health and lives from breathing in diesel fumes.

But I’d be derelict in my duty as a Virginia (VA) personal injury attorney who has represented dozens of rail workers sickened by exposure to toxic and cancer-causing chemicals on the job if I left the details of how companies and politicians did everything they could to squelch the diesel-cancer link findings. The story closely parallels how the dangers of asbestos — and the toll of mesothelioma and asbestosis — were intentionally denied and concealed for decades, And like the shameful asbestos legacy, attempts to cover up diesel exhaust risks have resulted in thousands, if not millions, of unnecessary illnesses and deaths.

For related info about diesel exhaust fumes, take a look at these articles:

• What Every Rail Worker Needs to Know About Exposure to Diesel Exhaust Fumes and Lung Cancer
• Study Shows Link to Diesel Exhaust Fume Exposure and Increased Risk of Cancer
• Virginia FELA Attorney Talks About What the Railroads Knew and When About the Risk of Cancer and Exposure to Asbestos, Diesel Exhaust Fumes, etc.

The diesel exhaust data came from a 50-year study of  miners called, aptly, the Diesel Exhaust in Miners Study (DEMS). Between 1947 and 1997, federal researchers measured air pollution inside mines and tracked the health of the men and women who worked in the atmospheres saturated with diesel fumes. Analyses of the DEMS data conducted with funding from the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health revealed the lung cancer risk to workers most exposed to diesel exhaust. Those analyses were started before 1997, and papers were drafted for peer review as early as 2000.

A group of mining companies and fuel producers calling itself the Methane Awareness Resource Group filed suit in federal court to block circulation and, ultimately, publication of the DEMS papers on the grounds that research findings produced under government contracts are subject to review by members of Congress before being made public. That legal fine point is true, but the review is almost always pro forma, when it is conducted at all.

As an investigative report from the Center for Public Integrity notes, however, MARG not only succeeded in holding up dissemination of the diesel exhaust findings, the group won a judge’s order requiring industry review prior to publication. The 2001 court order kept the DEMS data out of print until 2012, an outcome the mining and fuel companies no doubt desired because they wanted to contest federal regulations on diesel exhaust. The corporations default critique has been that tougher diesel fume exposure standards lacked a scientific basis.

All during the legal proceedings, MARG has been fully supported by Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives. At one point, members of Congress went so far as to file a brief to a court on MARG’s behalf. At other times, congressmen have called on judges to enforce rulings favorable to the industry group.

Now, even with the data from the diesel exhaust study in print, MARG has obliquely threatened the editors and publishers of the Annals of Occupational Hygiene and the Journal of the National Cancer Institute with legal action. As fellow personal injury lawyer Maxwell S. Kennerly observed, however, the industry group doesn’t seem to have any grounds for a lawsuit because it has already compelled researchers to take the unprecedented step of sharing prepublication government data with a nongovernmental entity.

Yes. This is all so much inside baseball. But the details — which I’ve actually skimped on — are important to illustrate the lengths to which companies and their political patrons will go to in order to avoid liability for making employees sick.

Now that the truth about the dangers of diesel fumes is known, with even the New York Times and CBS News reporting on the cancer risks, it’s time to focus on how and why it took so long for the facts to get out. Industries must own up to the risks they require workers to face. When those risks become actual injuries and illnesses, companies must be held liable for compensating employees. This goes for Amtrak, CSX and Norfolk Southern as much as for trucking corporations and mine operators.

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 Randy Appleton, Railroad Cancer Victims’ Lawyer

In his latest post to our law firm’s Virginia Beach Injuryboard blog site, my rail employee occupational illness colleague Rick Shapiro shares details from a major long-term study that provides compelling evidence for a link between on-the-job exposure to diesel fumes and developing and dying from lung cancer. Rick calls on railroads from Amtrak to CSX and Norfolk Southern to pay attention to the study findings and to expand efforts to reduce rail employees’ exposure to diesel exhaust. To read more, click over to “Diesel Exhaust Raises Lung Cancer Risk, Suppressed Study Shows.”

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, Carolina Railroad Accident Attorney

Pointing to five major rear-end collisions involving freight trains during 2011, the National Transportation Safety Board has published two related safety recommendations regarding the importance of lowering speeds and increasing distances between trains sharing tracks and moving in the same direction. According to an agency press release, safety requirements for a following train include “being prepared to stop within one-half the range of vision.” The NTSB also stressed that “complete understanding of and strict compliance with restricted speed requirements are absolutely mandatory to prevent catastrophic train collisions.”

The following wrecks, which left numerous railroad employees injured and killed, raised NTSB’s concerns:

• Red Oak, Iowa (IA), April 17, 2011, BNSF
• Low Moor, Virginia (VA), May 21, 2011, CSX
• Mineral Springs, North Carolina (NC), May 24, 2011, CSX
• DeWitt, New York (NY), July 6, 2011, CSX
• DeKalb, Indiana (IN), August 19, 2011, Norfolk Southern

This memorial video shows the aftermath of the CSX rear-end crash in Mineral Springs in which an engineer ad a conductor on one train lost their lives and the two crew members on the other train suffered injuries requiring hospital treatment:

Recognizing that employers have as great a responsibility as rail workers for ensuring that safe track speeds and train following distances are posted, communicated and adhered to, the NTSB is asking the Association of American Railroads and the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association to emphasize these safety messages. On the employee side, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the United Transportation Union have also been contacted to spread the word about the importance of observing speed limits when sharing tracks.

As a Virginia-based railroad accident and FELA lawyer, I have seen firsthand the serious injuries that can result when trains collide or must stop suddenly and unexpectedly even at very low speeds. In light of the growing number of rear-end crashes attributable, at least in part, to excess speed and following too closely, I encourage railroads and rail employees to work together to make sure speed and distance rules are clarified and followed.

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 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.”

PA

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.

PA

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 Randy Appleton, Railroad Crossing Accident Victim’s Attorney

In his latest blog post to our firm’s Carolina personal injury attorneys’ website, my colleague John Cooper reports on a fatal railroad crossing collision along tracks owned by Norfolk Southern near Harrodsburg, Kentucky (KY). John notes that officials are questioning whether warning lights at the grade crossing were working at the time of the deadly crash and that the mother of the teen victim is calling on NS to see that crossing gates are installed at the intersection. To read more, click over to “Kentucky Teen Killed at Norfolk Southern Track Crossing That Lacks Gates.”

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 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.