Decatur Train Accident Lawyer

Railroads, as common carriers, are highly regulated businesses controlled by federal law.  A railroad owes a duty of care to all people and is required by law to take reasonable and prudent care in the operation of their trains, the maintenance of crossings, and the warning of pedestrians.  They have an even higher duty of care to their passengers to prevent accidents and keep them safe.  A railroad company has the responsibility to make sure that trains and tracks are maintained properly and that any employees have the correct training and experience to operate a train.  But, of course, a number of other parties may also have contributed to any accident.  You’ll need the help of a skilled attorney to assist with the investigation of your case in order to determine all potential possible responsible parties.  Examples might include:

• The company or public agency operating the train has the responsibility to keep their trains, railcars, and other equipment in good working order and to properly train and supervise all their employees to do their jobs correctly.
• The track owner is not always the operator of the train. Different sections of track may be owned by different private companies or government entities.  The party who owns or controls a section of track where an accident occurred, especially a derailment, could be liable if there were any deficiencies of the track contributing to the accident.
• Some employers don’t follow federal regulations limiting the number of hours a train engineer can work. As in trucking, fatigue is a major cause of accidents in the train industry.
• Sometimes a government agency can share responsibility for an accident. For example, state inspectors work with the FRA to make sure that railroad tracks and facilities are safe and meeting safety regulations.  And, railroads and the local road authorities have a joint responsibility for inspecting crossings and ensuring that they are reasonably safe for motorists and pedestrians.
• Sometimes, a manufacturer of equipment to be liable when equipment failure leads to an accident causing your injuries.

Serious accidents are investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board, but their investigations often take a very long time.  Since there are so many parties that may be partly responsible for any given accident, and since they will all be represented by attorneys and insurance companies motivated to shift blame and deny responsibility, the best course of action is to consult with a knowledgeable attorney yourself, someone that will work hard to make sure that your case is properly investigated and pursued.

A state workers’ compensation program covers most workers injured on the job.  That’s not the case for most railroad workers. Congress passed the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA) in 1908.  It provides for a federal system of legal recovery for railroad workers and their families.  So, if you’re an employee of an interstate railroad company, you’re generally not going to be covered by workers compensation.  The FELA program differs from state workers’ compensation in two important respects — 1) it’s not a “no-fault” program (it must be shown that the company was negligent and that the negligence caused the worker’s injury); and, 2) damages under FELA aren’t limited just to medical expenses (the worker can also obtain general damage compensation for things like pain and suffering, often resulting in significantly greater compensation than would result from a workers’ compensation claim for a similar incident).

So, to recover under FELA, you must be able to establish that some type of negligence, carelessness, or recklessness on the part of your employer, coworker, or an equipment manufacturer contributed to your accident causing your injuries.  Some examples of negligence include:

• failing to provide adequate job or safety training
• failing to provide adequate supervision
• failing to enforce safety regulations
• not providing adequate and well functioning safety equipment
• requiring workers to work longer hours than regulations permit
• requiring workers to perform under unreasonable time pressure

Companies licensed under FRA and subject to FELA often do not maintain any workers’ compensation insurance policies and often self-insure.  There may not be any insurance company involved.  This can put you in the difficult position of going up against the company that provides your livelihood.  That can be a tricky situation and is another reason why you should get representation by a knowledgeable personal injury attorney to establish liability and negotiate on your behalf.

In making a third-party injury claim, experienced legal representation is critical to ensuring that you recover for all of the damages allowed under Illinois or Federal law.  These may include:

• the cost of repairing or replacing any property that was lost or damaged
• current or future necessary medical or rehabilitation expenses
• current or future wages or benefits lost because of the injury
• separate damages if there is any shortening of life expectancy related to the injury
• any future or current caretaking expenses or other necessary help resulting from the injuries
• “loss of normal life” — things you can no longer do or enjoy — whether temporary or permanent
• current or future disabilities resulting from the injury
• compensation for the risk of any future harm you face because of the injury
• emotional distress or pain and suffering caused by the injury
• in some cases, punitive damages may be awarded if the responsible party’s actions were particularly egregious, willful, malicious, or intentional
• if, God forbid, you lost a loved one because of the accident or injuries, you’re entitled to compensation for the wrongful death of your loved one.

Nothing is more challenging than dealing with serious injuries, let alone the death of a loved one.  Recovery is not easy, but you don’t have to deal with this alone.  You can see that there are a lot of factors to consider in pursuing a railroad accident claim.  One of the best decisions you can make is to get a knowledgeable and compassionate train injury attorney to evaluate your case and guide you through this, making sure things are done right and that you are treated fairly.  You have enough to do to deal with your injuries and the economic stress injuries cause.  You don’t need to take on the hassle of the legal process without help.

An experienced lawyer can help with your case in a lot of ways:

• carefully listening to you and evaluating the circumstances of your accident injury
• identifying which federal and state laws and regulations might be applicable in your case
• thoroughly investigating the details of the accident to determine what went wrong and to identify all of the responsible parties
• interviewing witnesses and obtaining their statements
• making sure that the information on the train’ s “black box” is available to you in determining whether there was negligence on the part of the train operator
• hiring experts as needed to evaluate the accident and establish the damages
• obtaining all your medical records and carefully evaluating the extent of the injuries you suffered
• gathering all of the financial information needed to prove lost wages or income
• properly evaluating and honestly explaining, in language that you can understand, all of the strengths and weaknesses of your case, so you can make the best choices available to you
• making sure that all legal deadlines are met
• negotiating on your behalf to ensure that you receive maximum benefits and that any settlement provides full recovery for all your losses
• filing a lawsuit, in the unlikely event that a settlement can’t be reached; often these cases are settled without going to court

We don’t believe that cost shouldn’t be an obstacle to getting the legal help you need in this situation.  In a railroad personal injury case we usually represent clients on a contingency fee basis.  That means that there are no charges to you upfront, and we are only paid from the settlement if and when we successfully obtain a recovery for you.