Understanding Railroad Accident Injury Law in Missouri
When people think about the kinds of accidents a personal injury lawyer handles, they tend to think first of car wrecks, plane crashes, work-related accidents, or slip-and-fall injuries. While those kinds of injury accidents are common in Missouri, there are enough train accidents in Missouri that The Hershewe Law Firm, P.C. has developed this specialized subcategory of personal injury law into a focal area of our practice.
Missouri railway accidents—a statistical eye-opener
While Missouri is fortunate to have not made the Federal Railroad Administration statistics' top 15 highway-rail grade crossing collisions in 2009, we have nonetheless experienced an astoundingly high number of railway accidents. From 1999 to 2009, Missourians have suffered harm from 745 train accidents, according to the Federal Railroad Administration Office of Safety Analysis. These rail accidents have resulted in 277 fatalities
According to Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation, there are more than 218,000 miles of track in the United States. And where trains intersect roadways or run alongside residential areas, calamity occurs. FRA statistics indicate that railroad crossings are one of the leading causes of injuries and death in train accidents. In 2009, Missouri experienced 39 train collisions from highway-railroad crossing incidents, which resulted in eight fatalities and 17 injuries.
Not all train accidents are caused by rail operator negligence. Trespassers account for approximately 500 rail-related fatalities per year in the United States. The FRA reported in 2009 that trespassers represent the largest number of fatalities involving trains.
For more federal statistics, visit the Federal Railroad Administration's Office of Safety Analysis.
Missouri railroad accident law
Practicing railroad accident law in Missouri is a noble but often gruesome responsibility, as the kinds of injuries suffered by our train wreck clients are almost always tragically devastating—financially, emotionally, and physically—for several reasons:
- In a car-train collision, the damage to the train and its passengers is often nonexistent, even as the automobile involved is destroyed, sometimes beyond recognition. There is simply no competition between a moving train and the relatively tiny automobile.
- Lack of structural integrity to most train's passenger cars almost assures an accordion-like crushing of the passenger compartment in front or rear collisions, resulting in severe crushing injuries, severed limbs, and death.
- Because train passengers are often trapped inside the train in a wreck, fire is another grave danger. Getting passengers freed from an overturned train is exceedingly difficult, even as smoke and flames race from car to car, overcoming trapped passengers. When fire is not present, countless injured and trapped passengers often bleed to death as the fervent rescue operations stretch from minutes to hours.
Despite improvements in train safety procedures, communications, and equipment, train collisions with injuries and fatalities continue to occur. When these accidents are a result of negligence by train engineers, railway companies, railway and train equipment and parts manufactures, or terrorism, the victims and their families need legal help to recoup losses from injuries, suffering, emotional damage, loss of a loved one, loss of companionship, loss of income or ability to work, and more.
In Missouri, train wreck injury victims turn to The Hershewe Law Firm, P.C. Our train accident lawyers understand railroad accident laws in Missouri and leverage that knowledge and experience to build strong cases for our clients against the wrongdoers who share responsibility for your injuries in a Missouri train wreck.
Train wreck injuries in Missouri
If you or a loved one suffered injuries in a train collision, contact us—the law firm experienced in Missouri railroad accident laws and train wreck civil litigation.
