Archive for the ‘Train Accident Lawyer’ Category
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010
Most of us think of trains as a fairly safe form of transportation. True, we occasionally hear about a huge train wreck, but not that often right? You might be surprised to hear how often a train wreck actually happens. According to the Federal Railroad Administration Office of Safety Analysis (FRAOSA), in the State of California alone for the year 2009 there were 99 train accidents. The year before, there were 118 train accidents. Although 2009 did not see any fatalities from train accidents, in 2008 25 people died as a result of train accidents in the State of California alone.
The FRAOSA breaks down train accidents into three different categories of accident: collisions, derailments, and other accidents. By just looking at the statistics for the last two available years, it appears as though about 5% of all train accidents are collisions, 75% derailments and the remaining 20% are “other accidents”. Also by looking at the available data, it appears as though about 6% of all train accidents happen on passenger trains. Sadly, the data gets worse when we add in incidents that happen at railroad crossing. Thirty people were killed in 2009 at railroad crossings with another sixty killed by individuals trespassing on railroad tracks somewhere other than at a crossing. That’s almost 100 people that died as a result of crossing or attempting to cross railroad tracks.
These statistics are truly shocking to most people. For some reason, we rarely hear about train accidents or train track fatalities, yet they clearly happen with some regularity. The cause of the fatalities on the tracks themselves is evident, but what were the causes for the train accidents themselves? According to the research, human error accounted for almost half of all train accidents. You may remember the horrendous Metrolink train accident that happened in 2008. Attorney Emery Ledger of Ledger & Associates whose firm represents one of the victims of that accident says that the conductor of that Metrolink train was apparently sending and receiving text messages just seconds before the train collided with another train killing 25 people and injuring hundred of others. As with car accidents, human error ranks highest on the list of causes. Track and equipment defects combine to make the next biggest category of causes. Unfortunately, many of the trains and tracks that are being used today are outdated and are in separate need of repairs or replacement. When you combine all of these factors, train accidents become more likely – and more deadly – than most people think.
If you, or a loved one, have been involved in a California train accident and have suffered injuries as a result of the accident, please fell free to contact California train attorney Emery Ledger of Ledger & Associates for a free detailed evaluation of your train accident case. If someone else was responsible for the accident – whether it was the conductor or the train company –then you may be entitled to compensation for any injuries you or your loved one suffered. Attorney Ledger can be reached at 1-800-300-0001 or he can be visited online at www.ledgerlaw.com.
Tags: categories of accident, derailment, derailments, federal railroad administration, human error, juries, killed, law, Ledger, ledgerlaw.com, metrolink train, metrolink train accident, railroad administration, railroad crossings, safety, state of california, statistics, text, text message, text messages, train accident, train accident attorney, train accidents, train wreck
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Monday, April 26th, 2010
Just days ago, Toyota announced yet another recall covering another 35,000 vehicles– this one for 2010 Lexus GX 460 for an issue with the Vehicle Stability Control Software. This latest recall is the second in less than two weeks for the once seemingly untouchable automaker giant. Last Friday, the automaker announced a recall of approximately 600,000 Sienna minivans for corrosion problems with the spare tire that could lead to the tire failing onto the road unexpectedly. While these two recalls in and of themselves might not appear out of the ordinary or particularly harmful to an automobile manufacturer, with Toyota’s track record over the last year they may be devastating news.
Toyota first made headlines last Fall when a family of four was killed in a runaway Lexus SUV in San Diego. The fatal accident brought attention to the numerous complaints that had been filed with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the previous months – and even years – regarding unintended or sudden acceleration problems in Toyota manufactured vehicles. The accident eventually led to Toyota’s initial recall of some 4 million vehicles, but not before additional accidents and deaths were attributed to defective vehicles. The reason given for the recall was that the gas pedals were getting stuck on the floor mats. The next recall came in January and covered and additional 2.5 vehicles for a “sticky accelerator ” problems. A third recall followed in February for what appeared to be an unrelated problem with the anti-lock brake system.
From the original recall on, many consumers, regulators and government officials have been asking when Toyota new about these defective products. Families of accident victims and consumers have been asking why something wasn’t done sooner. A search of the NHTSA complaints for Toyota manufactured vehicles shows a history of “unintended acceleration” complaints that go back months-even years-before the first recall was issued. The United States government opened its own investigation into when Toyota knew about the issues and whether it acted in a timely manner to correct the problems. Under United States law, a manufacturer of any consumer product must make goof faith efforts to uncover any defects in their product, must report those defects to the proper governing bodies, and must repair, replace or refund the product. The United States government recently levied the largest fine in U.S. history against an automaker against Toyota – a hefty $16.4 million – for failure to act in a timely manner for the sticking gas pedal problems. The fine is the most allowed under current United States law, according to California recall attorney Emery Ledger. Toyota has agreed to pay the fine without protest. While not an admission of guilt, Toyota’s agreement to pay the fine may say much without actually saying anything.
If you have been the victim of an accident involving a Toyota manufactured vehicle and would like more information regarding what your legal options may be, please feel free to contact California Toyota recall attorney Emery Ledger at Ledger & Associates – 1-800-300-0001 or visit his website at www.ledgerlaw.com
Tags: acceleration, acceleration problems, accelerator, accident, accident victims, attorney, auto, automaker, automobil, complaint, deaths, defective products, defective vehicles, emery ledger, floor mat, floor mats, highway transportation, killed, law, Ledger, ledgerlaw.com, legal options, lexus, million vehicles, nhtsa, sudden acceleration, toyota, toyota recall, Toyota Recall Attorney
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Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
Here in the United States, most of us don’t give trains a second thought – unless we are stuck waiting for one to pass at a railroad crossing. Unlike, Europe and Asia, we are not nearly as dependant on trains for transportation. Having said that, it might surprise you to find out that in the year 2008 Amtrak alone served 28.7 million passengers. In addition to Amtrak, there are a variety of regional railroads that operate commuter services. Metrolink is one such commuter service that operates in southern California. You may also be surprised to find out how often a train collision or derailment actually occurs. There are a staggering 13,000 railroad related accidents every year according to the Federal Railroad Administration’s Office of Safety Analysis. That breaks down to about once every hour and a half there is a train collision or derailing. Even more shocking is the fact that around 1000 deaths a year and 8,000 non-fatal injuries can be attributed to train accidents. One reason that these statistics are so shocking is that we don’t here much about train accidents or derailments unless they produce catastrophic results. That was the case in September of 2008. At a little after 4:00 in the afternoon of September 12, 2008, a Metrolink commuter train collided head-on with a Union Pacific freight train resulting in the deadliest accident in Metrolink’s history, according to Emery Ledger, of Ledger and Associates, who is representing on the plaintiffs that was seriously injured in the collision.
According to the investigation completed by the National Transportation Safety Board, the collision was the result of the failure of the Metrolink train to heed a red signal when approaching a section of track. The Metrolink train left Union Station in downtown Los Angeles at 3:35 p.m. heading west to surburban Ventura County. At approximately 4:05 p.m. it left the Chatsworth station with 222 people on board. Less than 2 miles later, the Metrlink train failed to stop at the red light as required. The Metrolink’s failure to stop resulted in the Metrolink and the Union Pacific trains heading toward each other on a single track which ultimately ended in a head-on collision. The sheer magnitude of the collision and the resulting deaths and injuries drained both the City of Los Angeles and the County of Los Angeles’ emergency response teams and equipment. The final death toll was 25 with significantly more people seriously injured and/or hospitalized.
So why did the Metrolink’s train engineer fail to obey the red signal? Apparently he was distracted by the text messages he was sending and receiving. Records released by the NTSB’s investigation revealed that the train’s engineer, Robert M. Sanchez, exchanged 45 text messages while en route for his morning run. On his afternoon run, shortly before the collision took place, he apparently received seven messages and sent five – the last message coming in less than a minute before the collision. Los Angeles personal injury attorney Emery Ledger of Ledger & Associates says that this is a “tragic example of the dangers of texting while driving”.
Our hearts go out to all the victims and families of those that lost their lives that fateful day in 2008. If you have any questions regarding train accidents or the Chatsworth accident specifically, Emery Ledger can be reached at 1-800-300-0001 or contacted online at www.ledgerlaw.com
Tags: accident, accidents, amp, ational, attorney, cat, catastrophic results, commuter service, commuter services, commuter train, deaths, derailment, derailments, fatal injuries, federal railroad administration, freight train, injury, istration, juries, law, Ledger, metrolink train, national transportation safety, national transportation safety board, Personal Injury, personal injury attorney, plaintiff, plaintiffs, red light, red signal, regional railroads, safety, statistics, texting, texting while driving, train accident, train collision, train engineer, transportation safety, union pacific freight, united states
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Sunday, February 21st, 2010
It’s hard to believe that just a generation ago we somehow managed to live without cellular telephones. We communicated from home, from the office or from a public pay phone if absolutely necessary while traveling. All those “urgent” phone calls that we now make while driving managed to wait until we got where we were going. Now, most of us can’t imagine leaving home without our cell phone. It is comforting to know that you have it in your purse or pocket – just in case of emergency. Regrettably, most of us don’t use it only in an emergency while we are driving. Studies on talking while driving show us that close to 80% of Americans talk on their cell phone while driving. That’s an incredibly high number of people that are out there driving and talking. Those same studies also show us that almost 25% of all car accidents have cell phone use as a contributing factor. Even more dangerous is texting while driving. As many are aware, The Law Offices of Ledger & Associates has been retained to work on the largest texting accident in Unites States History. In September 2008, a MetroLink Train conductor was texting and ran a red light resulting in the collision with a Union Pacific Train. The massive accident resulted in twenty-five deaths and one hundred and thirty five injured passengers. All because of texting!
Estimates are that at any given time of the day, at least 10% of all motorists on the road are talking on their cell phones. It is not surprising then that around 2,600 people die each year as a result of accidents caused by cell phone usage and another 330,000 are injured. Talking on a cell phone while driving makes it four times more likely that you will be involved in an injury accident. The risk of being involved in an accident while talking on a cell phone is so high that 6 states (California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Washington) as well as the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands ban all drivers from talking on handheld phones while driving. The reason that talking on a cell phone while driving is so dangerous is that talking is a huge distraction to drivers. While using a hands-free device helps, it doesn’t remove all the risk. The largest distraction in using a cell phone does come from dialing, but simply talking has proven to be a distraction to drivers as well. Although the risks of talking and driving appear to be well founded, millions of Americans continue to engage in this risky behavior every day putting all of our lives at risk on the nation’s streets and highways.
If you have been involved in an accident and you believe that talking while driving was a factor in the accident, then you may have the basis for a personal injury case. Seek the advice and counsel of an experienced California personal injury attorney immediately. If the person that hit you was talking on their phone while driving, then they may have been driving negligently and you may be entitled to compensation for any injuries you have suffered as a result of the accident. Only an experienced California personal injury attorney can evaluate your specific case and determine what options you have for pursuing compensation. The attorneys at Ledger & Associates are available to answer all your questions and help you navigate the legal process. Give them a call at 1-800-300-0001 or visit them on the Internet at www.ledgerlaw.com
Tags: car accidents, cell phone usage, cellular telephones, distraction, handheld phones, injury accident, motorists, risk, talking and driving, texting while driving
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Sunday, February 7th, 2010
With the advent of cellular phones came yet another cause of traffic accidents. Twenty years ago in the United States a cellular phone was considered a luxury item reserved for the upper classes or those professionals that truly needed one. Times have certainly changed! Now, over 80% of the population in the United States owns a cell phone. Most of us feel lost if we realize we forgot to grab our cell phone when we left the house. Additionally, most of us are now accustomed to using our cell phones at all times and in all places – including inside the car while driving. While talking on the phone while driving creates a greater risk of having an accident, texting while driving sends that chance skyrocketing.
The statistics for accidents involving texting drivers are staggering. While you may think that the driving while texting problem is reserved for teenage drivers – it’s not. One-fifth of adult drivers in the United States admit to sending text messages while driving. That figure may be higher as many people do not want to admit that they engage in obvious risky behavior. So how risky is texting while driving? Studies show that people that are texting while driving are 23% more likely to be in an accident. To put that in perspective, texting while driving is six times more likely to result in an accident than driving while intoxicated. The reason why texting is so incredibly dangerous is the time that it takes your eyes off the road. One study showed that texting while driving increases the time your eyes are not on the road by 400%! Think of that statistics this way – for every 6 seconds of drive time, a driver sending or receiving a text message spends 4.6 of those seconds with their eyes off the road. This makes texting the most distracting of all cell phone related tasks.
As of February, 2010, nineteen states, the District of Columbia and Guam have banned text messaging for all drivers. Nine other states ban text messaging for novice drivers. The State of California is one of the states that have banned not just text messaging, but hand held devices entirely. Despite this ban, accidents continue to happen as the result of driver’s texting while driving. If you absolutely must communicate with someone while you are driving, use a hands-free device to do it. While texting is a wonderful, easy way to communicate, save it for when you are not supposed to be watching the road! If you have been the victim of an accident involving cellular phone use, then you may be entitled to recover compensation for your injuries. Only an experienced California accident attorney can evaluate your particular case and advise you as to what options you may have to recover for the damages you have suffered.
If you have been the victim of a car accident and would like an experienced attorney to evaluate your case, contact the law offices of Ledger & Associates at 1-800-300-0001 or visit us at www.ledgerlaw.com.
Tags: advent, cellular phone, cellular phones, sending text messages, teenage drivers, text messaging, texting, traffic accidents
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Thursday, February 4th, 2010
Just a few days ago, Federal investigators stated that railway companies may be required to install video recorders in train cabs to prevent the operators from being distracted while driving the trains. This is an important new requirement, since railroad workers now are not similarly monitored by remote control camera. The reasons for this new level of control are because of the increase of accidents by train operators who are distracted on the job.
Last year a head-on collision killing 25 people in Los Angeles, CA, was blamed on the commuter train engineer having sent and received text messages on his cellular telephone. It seems almost unbelievable, that the engineer of a commuter rail train was chatting on the “celly” while driving the train. The fact that he could have been sending and receiving those tiny, not well-lit LED text messages in incredible, what was this person thinking? To put the lives of potentially hundreds of people on the line, for a few moments of entertainment is beyond my capacity to understand. That is because, it was determined that moments before the crash, this engineer had run a red signal light and hit a Union Pacific freight train traveling in its path. How do you miss another train?
I remember my days riding in commuter rail trains. I have ridden in trains in most major cities and in some European countries as well. I have to admit, I have never, ever, not even once thought of the fact that the engineer was not paying attention while the train was careening through the countryside or whoosing under city tunnels to underground terminals. No, I was on board playing heated and emotional laden card games, with gents and lads I would have naturally only met moments before, and was usually intent of having the time of my life – just passing the time. You see, out of the window of a train car, the passengers will have no idea what is happening up front. And how could we? Our field and perspective is to enjoy the ride. The duty and performance of our train engineer is to drive the train. Separate and never equal, our duties are distinct and full of purpose. I am meant to look out the window, take a nap, meet new friends or read a novel. The train engineer is entrusted with only one duty – and that is to drive the train in the safest manner possible.
Adding monitored video cameras may go a long way to making sure that train engineers are doing their jobs in a safe and reliable manner. If the commuter train in the accident last year had been equipped with a video camera, the railroad owners would have been possibly able to monitor their engineers, and avert a deadly crash. If railroad engineers are being watched, it will possibly prevent them from making and receiving texts, telephone calls and messages – especially when they should be concentrating on their jobs at hand.
Congress is interested in going a step further. A new invention called a “positive train control” has been considered to solve one aspect of this problem. Congress has passed legislation which will require rail companies to install complex computer systems that will have the ability to stop trains that are speeding out of control or are on a course to collision in a wreck with other trains. The controls will be required to be in place by the end of the year 2015, and will serve to make traveling by train safer for everyone who rides trains.
These and other serious matters deserve serious attention. If you have had an accident while riding in a commuter rail train, give us a call at Ledger & Associates at 1-800-300-0001 or email us at www.ledgerlaw.com. We can discuss your options with you and review the accident on the merits.
Tags: accident, accidents, cellular telephone, commuter rail, commuter train, control camera, freight train, head on collision, rail train, rail trains, railroad workers, railway companies, red signal, train accident, train car, train engineer, train operators, union pacific freight
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Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
By now, everyone knows not to walk on the railroad track. This is for several reasons – chief of which being that even abandoned looking tracks can have a speedy train that will come down the line occasionally. And the person on the track will often not have the time to get out of the way, courting disaster and an accident.
Another issue that you should all consider, is that although you are familiar with any railroad tracks in or near your town, remember that there may be tracks at the place where you vacation, or are sent to a related job-site, or come across in another town where you find yourself visiting. These tracks will not be so familiar to you, and you should err on the side of caution whenever crossing railroad tracks in a vehicle.
Workers who repair roads know that it takes special maintenance to repair a railroad track. The asphalt has to be poured up to the tracks, the area needs to be leveled off correctly to allow rain to run off, and the gravel needs to be replaced in central areas of the track. When a car goes over railroad tracks, it is usually going over an area that has been smoothed out for allowing cars to travel over the track area. For motorcyclists, it is important that they should always use caution, since their wheels have a likelihood of getting caught in the grooves at any speed, as they traverse the tracks.
There are three general types of railroad crossings. Railroad crossings with lights and gates, crossings with only lights, and those with no lights or gates – just a sign (called a crossbuck) that there is a railroad crossing. Each of these types of crossings usually also have a signal or warning bell that will clang, and alert drivers and pedestrians that a train may be coming. If there is more than one track involved in the crossing, the crossbuck will have a notation on a sign telling passersby that there is more than one track. The alternating flashing red lights are a safety feature to alert drivers that a train is coming.
One problem that occurs at railroad crossings is that motorists often try to get around the gates. They look up and down the track when the gates come down, and feel that they don’t “see” the train coming. This is a dangerous maneuver that should be avoided at all times. But there are people who consider going around the gates. Many lives have been lost by people who attempted to subvert the gates and beat the train. There is even a new technology called “StopGates” (reinforced gates with longer blocking arms) or delineators (cylinders which pop up from the ground to block cars) which is meant to make it impossible for auto drivers to drive around a gate at a railroad crossing.
School buses, some truckers carrying special freight or liquids (such as fuel) and other large commercial livery vehicles have strict rules regarding stopping at railroad tracks before they cross. They are stopping and opening their door or windows, to determine that the coast is clear and that they can pass safely. If they determine a train is coming, they will wait safely on one side until the train has passed. Most of the level crossings (railroad crossings) in the U.S. are equipped with a special lane for these vehicles to pull into to check the crossing safely. If there is no special lane, drivers should be aware that there may be certain vehicles that are required by law to stop and listen before going over the tracks.
If you have been in an accident at or near a railroad crossing, and you want to speak to an expert at these types of accidents, you will want to call us at Ledger & Associates at 1-800-300-0001 or email us at www.ledgerlaw.com. We are standing by to take your call, so call today.
Tags: accident, accidents, bus, cat, metrolink train accident, pedestrian, railroad accident lawyer, railroad attorney, safety, train accident attorney, Train Accident Lawyer
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