A man from Conneaut OH who suffered serious injuries when his pickup truck was hit by a CSX Railway train in 2014 has sued the railroad in Lake County OH Common Pleas Court.
The man filed the personal injury lawsuit in late January and will be heard by Judge John O’Donnell.
The driver alleges that CSX was negligent and this led to the accident because the railroad did not provide sufficient warning of the train approaching.
The crossing in question has five sets of tracks, and a train was parked in the middle track. Several other motorists drove around the gates, as did the driver. All of them thought that the gates and lights were turned on because of the train that was parked on the middle track, and it also blocked his view of the oncoming train. His truck was hit at 60 MPH by the CSX train.
The lawsuit also states that four of five tracks in that area have parked CSX engines and this obstructed motorists’ view of oncoming trains. Also, the suit states that the gates and lights were activated for several minutes, which could lead motorists to reasonably assume that the parked engines caused the gates to lower.
Our railroad injury attorneys in Virginia and North Carolina hope that this injured man fully recovers from his railroad crossing accident injuries. This railroad crossing injury case is interesting because while the motorist did go around the gates, many other drivers did the same as well because the gates and lights were activated for so long. Also, the suit alleges that motorists’ view of oncoming train traffic was obscured by parked CSX engines.
It is the responsibility of the railroad to ensure that drivers have adequate sight lines at railroad crossings so that they can cross safely. We have handled Virginia railroad crossing injury cases where the driver was not able to clearly see oncoming train traffic, which led to serious injuries.
Any driver who is injured at a railroad crossing should speak to an experienced railroad crossing accident attorney to determine if the railroad properly maintained the crossing so that drivers have an opportunity to cross safely.