Hawaii Personal Injury Blog - railroad injury

Railroad Accidents Capture The Public Attention After Tragic Washington D.C. Wreck

Wayne Parsons — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:48:27 GMT

Trains fascinate all of us _ particularly little boys _ from an early age. The sounds of the train whistle in the distance is also part of the lore of the American country-side. But the romantic images of trains and train travel also conjure up images of train wrecks and when a train crashes it is always a disaster.

Books memorialize these railroad disasters - some in pictures:

Train Wrecks: A Pictorial History of Accidents on the Main Line -By Robert Carroll Reed

Others recount the tragic incidents with a view toward safety:

Death Rode the Rails: American Railroad Accidents and Safety, 1828--1965 - By Mark Aldrich

Currently the news about the Washington D.C. Metrolink crash is continuing to come in. For people who were injured they e leery of any attorneys soliciting cases. I live in Honolulu and so i am not interested in these cases so maybe I can say this more easily than if I lived in the D.C. areas. It is illegal to approach a victim of this crash, or their family if you are an attorney or represent the interests of an attorney. If you are solicited, report the attorney to the appropriate disciplinary office with the Court in your area.

The cause of the crash is not yet understood according to news reports on Tuesday:

Authorities are focusing on anti-collision sensors in the rear train, signal failure and operator error as possible causes of the crash.

The rear train was equipped with sensors which were supposed to stop the train if another train was detected within close proximity, but investigators are not sure why the system did not engage. They are also not sure why the driver, Jeanice McMillan, 42, didn’t stop the train manually when she saw the stopped train ahead of her.

The investigation is complicated by the fact that the rear train was not equipped with data recorders, which will make it more difficult to piece together what happened. It was an older model 1000 series train that the NTSB had recommended be replaced or retrofitted in 2004 and 2006. However, no action was taken to that end, and now some are wondering if the collision could have been avoided if the train had been a newer model.

I also have recently found the articles written by Steve Lombardi of the Lombardi Law Firm in Des Moines, IA to be particularly insightful:

DC Metro Train Accident begs the question, are Washington's distractions leading us astray

Attorneys like Rick Shapiro and Steve Lombardi are not pounding their chests to get cases. They want to help promote safety through public education about the causes of these disasters. Like the attorneys of the past, they care about their communities and they exemplify the concept of doing well by doing good. You can bet that their heads are hung low in memory of the victims of Monday's crash on the Red Line in Washington D.C. Why did it happen? What can be done to make sure it doesn't happen again?

Another article worth reading is from Brooks Schuelke of Texas:

Washington, DC Train/Rail Disaster Kills At Least Seven & Injures More. What Does It Mean For Austin?

John Cooper's recent post is also informative:

Washington, DC Metro Train Ride Turns Into Terrible Wreck - By John Cooper

The Metrolink train wreck on Monday brought railroad injuries to mind all the way out here in Honolulu. We don't have trains now although a proposed fixed rail mass transit system has filled the local TV stations and the Honolulu Advertiser with controversy for the past few years.

Lawyers have been involved in the history of train wrecks and the injury and death that follow. I have followed the writings of Rick Shapiro of Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm in Virginia and the Washington D.C. that trace the history and development of the law and engineering in the area of railroad crashes. Their firm was actually formed in part with the purpose of promoting safety and dealing with the injured and deceased victims of train wrecks.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Wayne Parsons

Washington, D.C. Nightmare As Metro Trains Collide-- As Many As 7 Dead and Over 70 Injured

Wayne Parsons — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:14:12 GMT

Probably the favorite rail system in the United States, the Washington D.C. Metrolink system is now the focus of one of the worst rail crash cases in history. The Wall Street Journal reports 9 dead and as many as 70 injured in Washington D.C. when two Metro trains collided at 5 P.M. just before peak rush hour crowds. The crash occurred on the Red Line between Takoma and Fort Totten. The train in the rear actually mounted the rear of the front train.

Associated Press

The D.C. Fire Department reports 9 dead and over 70 injured as the toll rises. As reported in the Associated Press:

The District of Columbia Fire Department has raised the death toll to nine in Monday's collision of two Metrorail trains.

A release on the department's Web site says rescue workers located three more bodies in the wreckage late Monday night. All three were declared dead at the scene.

One Metro transit train smashed into the rear of another at the height of the Monday evening rush hour. The trailing train jackknifed violently into the air and fell atop the first.

Initially, six people were confirmed dead, including the operator of the trailing train, Jeanice McMillan of Springfield, Va.

The National Transportation Safety Board is on the scene investigating. The collision is of a type known as "telescoping," where a following train overtakes another train and mounts the roof and collapses into itself like a retracting telescope. Telescoping occurred 1996 when a Metro operator was killed and happened again in a Metro crash in 2004 Woodley Park near the zoo. The crash of the Red Line today ranks high as the worst tragedy in railroad cases in this part of the country according to the Wall Street Journal:

"It's as horrific as you can imagine," Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty told reporters. "Literally one car of the train is squeezed almost completely together."

Metro's Mr. Catoe said this type of crash is rare. He suggested at least one of the trains was operating automatically. Trains Tuesday would be run manually by conductors at speeds slower than normal, he added. The train that caused the crash is one of the oldest types run on the system.

For those of us who travel to Washington, D.C. and its environs, The Metro is a major pleasure. However criticism of its safety record has been mounting as the number of derailments and crashes mount. For instance a 2004 crash occurred because officials concluded that the Metro operator was asleep as the train rolled backward for 78 seconds and slammed into another train in the Woodley Park station, injuring 20 people and causing $3.5 million in damage.

Rick Shapiro a railroad injury attorney with the firm of Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton has been studying railroad injury cases for years in this area and has reported on this crash:

At least 6 Dead, 60 or More Injured in Washington, DC Area Metro Train Crash By Rick Shapiro

Although my firm has no relationship with Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton I do refer clients with cases - particularly railroad injury cases - to them because of their long history of experience with these cases and their efforts to advocate safety and prevent railroad accidents like the tragic events of today on the Red Line. And Wayne Parsons Law Offices follows these National News Stories on our Website.

You may find resources from Rick Shapiro and John Cooper helpful in investigating this tragedy:

Our ties with the railroad date back to the very founding of the firm. Our founder served as a trainman/conductor for the NS/Norfolk and Western Railway Company and a UTU union official before receiving his law degree. His experience on the railroads allowed him to bring unique perspectives to his railroad legal practice, including the safety and wage concerns of those who are in the vital business of keeping the trains moving. Richard N. Shapiro, one of our attorneys, is the co-author of “Railroad Health & Safety-A Litigator’s Guide,” one of leading treatises on railroad injury law, found in the nation’s law libraries (72 Am. Jur. Trials 1). Also, Richard N. Shapiro and John M. Cooper have both served as officers and the Chairman of the American Association for Justice Railroad Section, the largest group of the nation’s trial attorneys.

These tragedies can be prevented if the advice of safety advocates like Rick Shapiro and John Cooper are consulted. They know what went wrong and how to fix it. Unfortunately it is too late for the tragic victims of todays railroad crash on the Red Line in Washington, D.C.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Wayne Parsons