Suing Amtrak for Wrongful Deaths and Injuries

Lawsuits involving Amtrak are some of the most complicated in the field of personal injury. This is, in large part, due to their enormous size, with many train accidents occurring at more than 100 miles per hour. Similar to commercial trucking accidents, there are usually multiple parties who could be or share in liability. To make matters even more complicated, […]

Leading Causes of Train Vs Vehicle Collisions in Virginia

While far from the most common kind of motor vehicle accident in Virginia, a collision involving a train and an automobile is usually catastrophic. Victims frequently suffer devastating injuries, such as paralysis, traumatic brain injury, internal organ damage, and traumatic amputation when a locomotive crashes into their vehicle. If this happened to you, you could be entitled to financial compensation […]

Negligence and Liability in Virginia Railroad Crossing Accidents

An overwhelming majority of serious railroad accidents take place on level crossings. According to the Virginia Department of Transportation, Virginia has 9, 409 railway crossings.  Of these, 2,574 private grade crossings, 1,852 public and at-grade, 1,852 grade-separated, and 3,764 closed crossings. A lot of these crossings are not equipped with critical safety features that warn people in the area when […]

Understanding the Impact of Coworker Negligence on Your FELA Claim

One of the unique aspects of the protections the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA) provides employees may recover under the Act for injuries caused by their fellow employees.  A railroad is responsible for injuries to an employee if the negligence of the railroad contributes “even in the slightest” to the cause of the injury.  There is a litany of duties […]

Why You Need an Experienced Railroad Derailment Lawyer When You Suffer Injuries or Lung Damage From a Train Wreck

No one can feel completely safe when a train goes off the tracks. “Train wreck” did not become shorthand for a disastrous situation for no reason. As Virginia-based railroad injury lawyers for going on 40 years, we have seen firsthand some of the worst results from train derailments. We helped several victims of the Norfolk Southern chemical train crash in […]

What Duties Do Railroads and Landowners Have to Prevent Crashes at Private Crossings?

More than 6,700 miles of railroad track exist in Virginia, and those tracks cross thousands of driveways, business lots and private roads. Nearly every one of those private railroad crossings lacks the flashing warning lights and automatic gates drivers, bike riders and pedestrians have grown to expect on public roads and highways. In fact, a majority of private railroad crossings […]

US Government to Investigate Growing Length of Freight Trains

US Congress will be investigating the safety of freight trains that are growing increasingly longer operated by CSX, Union Pacific, and other major railroads to increase profitability, according to the US Government Accountability Office. As of 2017, train length is unregulated in the United States. Any effort to add rules to restrict train length will face strong railroad industry opposition […]

US Railroad Workers Testing Positive for Drugs Skyrockets

In early 2016, a railroad worker who had just been briefed on an upcoming assignment was found dead in a restroom, having overdosed on illegal prescription drugs. In the following months, tests that were done after three railroad accidents found that six employees on the trains tested positive for drugs.  In a report done by the Washington Post, testing in […]