Train Crash Lawsuit

If you lost a loved one in a train crash, you have important legal rights and may be entitled to financial compensation.  Call us today to get the facts.  Call Toll Free 1-866-777-2557 or fill out our online contact form and a lawyer will respond within 24 hours to answer your questions.

When people think of traveling long distances and fearing accidents that may happen, usually that thought is associated with planes, not trains. However, train accidents do happen from time to time and can be just as deadly, considering the number of passengers that both planes and trains can carry at any point. 

The main difference between the two, however, is that train accidents are more common than plane crashes. If they were to be ranked in terms of safety, driving would the least safe, followed by trains, and then planes. Considering how a train crash almost always results in, at the very least, property damage, and in the worst case injuries and/or death, the higher odds that your train will crash are significantly more frightening.

For instance, per the Federal Railroad Administration, there are over 3,000 train accidents reported annually in the United States. Out of those 3,000, one accident occurs, on average, about every two hours. What's really sad is that half of all train accidents are the result of railroad crossings that are not equipped with adequate warning signals. Scarier still is that over 80 percent of railroad crossings in the United States are not properly equipped with said signals.

The two most recent train accidents to occur in the United States took place on September 29, 2016 and October 8, 2016. The former took place in Hoboken, NJ, when the train passed over the end-of-track bumper block, smashing into a wall and damaging the terminal. One woman was killed on the platform when she was hit by falling debris, and over 100 others were injured. The latter took place on Long Island when a train derailed near New Hyde Park after striking a work train. 33 people were injured as a result, four of them seriously.

Insofar as being struck by a train, every two hours in the United States, a train hits a pedestrian or a vehicle that is stuck on the tracks. About 1,000 people are killed every year as the result of a train accident, and chemical spills resulting from train derailments happen about once every two weeks. These chemicals are typically chemicals that the train has been transporting from one location to another Some spills can be so dangerous that residents who live close to the spill will be required to evacuate the area.

Accidents involving vehicles hitting trains have actually decreased in recent years. However, incidents involving trains striking pedestrians have actually been on the rise.