Fatal Train Accidents

Attorney Michael Grossman Discusses Your Legal Option if a Loved One Was Killed in an Accident with or on a Train

Trains are enormous and powerful vehicles, and people can be killed due to accidents on trains in a variety of ways. People can be run over by trains, they can fall off of trains, and they can get into car accidents with trains. No matter how a train accident occurs, the outcome is often fatal.

If you have lost a family member in a fatal train accident, then you are likely wondering if you have the right to pursue legal action against the responsible party. At Grossman Law Offices, we’ve been dealing with wrongful death litigation involving train accidents and other fatal mishaps for 20 years, so we are all too familiar with the intense emotional pain and turmoil with which your family is currently grappling. Thus, we want to ease your confusion and anguish by providing you this informative article about fatal train accidents, so you can better understand the legal situation in which you have found yourself. If you would like to discuss your situation in more detail with an experienced wrongful death lawyer, then by all means, call us now for a free consultation at 1-855-589-5645 (toll free).

How Do I Know if I Have the Grounds for a Wrongful Death Lawsuit after a Fatal Train Accident?

Train accidents can occur for a wide variety of reasons. Most people immediately picture a car trying to outrun a train before being smashed as it crosses the tracks right in front of the charging locomotive. However, most car collisions with trains occur when the car rams into the side of the train due to a lack of lighting and warning gates. Moreover, people can fall of trains, get sucked under the train while trying to jump aboard it, or merely get run over by the train. All of these accidents are often fatal.

Duty

No matter what the interaction between parties, every person or entity has the duty of taking reasonable consideration to account for the safety of others. Exactly what that care entailed depends upon the given situation. Trains present a number of hazards to the general public, so numerous parties may have countless duties involved. The train company is responsible for maintaining warning signs and lights at railroad crossings, and in the state of Texas, the engineer is supposed to blast the train’s whistle whenever passing through an intersection. Moreover, a driver has the duty of protecting all passengers by concentrating when he or she drives. If a train has open connecting areas between cars, then signs must be posted warning of the dangers of moving from car-to-car.

Breach

When someone violates the required duty, like the train company not repairing defective warning gates at railroad crossings, a driver momentarily losing concentration and driving into the side of a train as it’s already crossing the tracks, or the train company not putting up sufficient warning signs.

Causation

The breach of duty resulted in the fatal accident. In other words, a car collided with the train due to the broken warning gate, or the inattention of the driver. Also, a person fell from the train because there was not sufficient warnings of danger or guardrails to protect him or her.

Pursuable Damages in a Fatal Train Accident

If your loved one has been killed in a train accident because some other party breached a duty that was owed to the victim, then your family has the right to file a single comprehensive lawsuit in quest of both wrongful death damages and survival damages. We know that your family has been leveled by the loss of one of its beloved members, and we know that money is likely the last thing on your minds at the moment. On the other hand, we also know the tremendous financial setback the loss of a loved one can be. It’s even worse when the victim was the family’s predominant breadwinner. In order to be able to figure out a way to recover mentally, your family will simply have to bounce back financially. Furthermore, when it comes to fatal train accidents, the only way to bring the negligent party to justice is usually through a wrongful death lawsuit. If you don’t take legal action, then the party who caused your loved one’s death may continue his or her dangerous behavior, leading to more innocent people being injured or killed. By making the negligent party pay, you force him or her to change his or her ways.

With wrongful death damages, the spouse, children, and parents of the deceased are all eligible to be compensated for the financial and emotional losses they’ve experienced as individuals. Wrongful death restitution may include compensation for:

• Funeral expenses.
• Loss of the economic support that had been previously supplied to the family by the deceased.
• Loss of the unique familial love and consortium the deceased supplied.
• Emotional and mental suffering experienced by the grieving loved ones.

The purpose of survival damages, on the other hand, is completely different. Survival damages allow the deceased’s closest living relative to pursue the damages the victim should be due for the suffering he or she has personally experienced. The spouse usually inherits this right, but it can also be passed down to the children, the parents, or even a sibling. Survival damages may include:

• The victim’s pain and suffering.
• The victim’s mental anguish.
• Medical bills charged to the victim before he or she died.

While these are the damages your family could theoretically obtain, you’re going to need a seasoned and competent wrongful death attorney in order to convince the court that you deserve these damages. Proving up damages for medical or funeral expenses is simple – you need only produce the physical copies of the bills themselves. However, coming up with an adequate and accurate price tag for the mental anguish experienced by the victim or his or her loved ones requires the skill-set of someone who has handled many different wrongful death cases and has the experience to know what constitutes a fair number and what is outlandish.

What Makes Fatal Train Accident Cases so Complex?

Don’t make the costly miscalculation of assuming that fatal train accident cases are just like any other auto wreck, for that’s way off-base. Beyond the blatant differences, train accident litigation is much different than for car accidents.

First, unlike passenger cars, trains have enormous commercial insurance policies. While you would initially assume this to be good news, as the damages you are owed will be covered by insurance. However, with more money at stake in their insurance policies, adjusters will often expend a much greater effort to protect those policies. Second, the insurance company and or the train company will be defended by a team of specialized defense attorneys who do nothing for a living but defend big business against train accident litigation. Third, federal regulations overlap with state rules when it comes to train travel, due to interstate commerce issues. This inevitably leads to laws that can confuse laymen who don’t have significant experience with other fatal train accident cases.

However, perhaps the biggest challenge to success with a wrongful death lawsuit involving a train accident is the way the public perceives train travel. Most people believe train travel is fairly safe, so they are reluctant to believe that a collision with a train could be the fault of the train company and not the driver. In order to succeed with securing the compensation you deserve for the death of your loved one, you’re going to need a fatal train accident attorney who knows what he or she is doing.

At Grossman Law Offices, Michael Grossman and his team of associates have been helping grieving loved ones resolve wrongful death lawsuits involving train wrecks and various other kinds of fatal accidents for two decades. In Texas and Arkansas, we’ve been able to obtain millions and millions of dollars in compensation for the families of hundreds of wrongfully killed victims. Both the insurance companies and the defense lawyers in both states are familiar with our reputation for success, and they know it’s often a wise idea to offer our clients a fair settlement in order to avoid the cost of time and money involved with a jury trial.

If you’ve lost a loved one a fatal train accident, then call us today at 1-855-589-5645 (toll free) to find out how we can help you obtain the damages to which you are entitled.