Railroad Liability - Sometimes it's about being a good citizen.
Attorney
(866) 735-1102 Ext 335
So why should the railroad be liable? Having played Monopoly you probably have a warm fuzzy place in your mind for Reading Railroad. You have to get over that sentimentality with the jury.
A train with many cars is stopped in a city or town. The train has many cars and those cars once stopped block several of the streets in the city or town. The rail cars are black and this particular night it's very dark. A car comes along and not realizing that a flat bed car blocks the way drives into it, killing the driver and passengers. No one saw the flat bed car. So why should the railroad be liable? Having played Monopoly you probably have a warm fuzzy place in your mind for Reading Railroad. You have to get the jury over that sentimentality.
The Reading Railroad may be liable because of a city or county ordinance that prohibits trains from blocking the city streets for more than twenty minutes. Most cities have such an ordinance. And why?, you ask. It has to do with police, fire and rescue operations. The city police, fire and rescue workers count on those roads being open when police and rescue operations are most needed. When planned and designed the assumption is that a railroad may block the route but for no more than twenty minutes or less.
It's time for you to do some lawyer work. What municipality governed the location where the crash occurred? Those regulations are in place to protect fire lanes and law enforcement functions.
Here are some things to think about: Was the driver of the vehicle drunk or had he been drinking alcohol? Had the engineer? Were there any reflectors on the rail car? Get the records to show how long the rail cars had been stationary/stopped. Look at it from a fire standpoint; what if a house fire had started on the other side of the tracks, how would the city or county have fought it if the road was blocked? Where was the rail engineer? Why had the train stopped where it did? Was it due to a break down or loading or unloading or some other reason? How long was the train? How many cars? How many roads had they blocked and for how long? You must appreciate the magnitude of the issue. Allow the jury to enforce the policy of the municipality.
What about emergency vehicles like ambulances and EMT's? What if it were a person on the other side of the tracks having a heart attack? Before I picked that jury I'd know their addresses and the addresses of their relatives. And if I could put anyone of them on the opposite side of the tracks, just out of reach it would bring home the seriousness of the laws that the Reading Railroad had broken. "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury think about those people on the opposite side of the tracks. What if one of them had a heart attack and needed the ambulance crew to save their life? What then? The rail road has to be a good citizen just as we have to."
And that's what it's about being a lawyer. You have to understand the bigger picture. And that takes experience.
Good luck with your case and remember, "Onward we march...."