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Judge rules for UP in Midland accident, appeal expected
When did trains stop having the right of way? When the person driving the second float across the track thought, oh the train is going to stop for us or we can beat it. When did that ill thinking of thought become so commonplace? Does not the law of physics carry any weight anymore. Like Bob Dylan sang years ago, “it’s a wonder we (humans) still know how to breath”.
When people make bad mistakes, they blame others in hopes that “something” will show evidence in their favor - what do they have to lose? I wonder what the appeal would be…
A train traveling at 60+ mph no matter the weight will take a least a mile or more to stop. I’ve worked for the class one for more than 10 years and every time someone pulls out in front of us your heart falls into your shoes because you realize if they don’t get out of the way what will probably happen. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family of those how lost their lives that day. To survive a war and come back home to be celebrated and died doing that just isn’t fair.
Mike has it right. Had my heart in my boots many times during my 44 years of train service. My prayers always go to the victims and the train crew in these incidents.
To put that train crew through another frivolous lawsuit is something else that just isn’t fair. What could they have done different? They according to everything I’ve read did everything they could to worn them and still some attorney chose to sue them anyway. Maybe suing the attorneys that bring these lawsuits will stop the madness.
While I feel really bad for the families, it’s another case of what’s wrong with America. The trial Lawyers have every victim convinced there’s a “golden ticket” just waiting to be had if they only sue. I’d love to see these attorney’s who bring these lawsuits be held liable for the entire RR’s legal fee’s. It only seems fair. There was no gross negligence other than possibly the driver of the float truck or the parade organizers for not contacting UP and giving them notice of such parade. I know if they had, rail crews would’ve had speed restrictions on their GTB’s. But the lawyer’s weren’t interested in going after the driver of the truck or the parade organizers as the “deep pockets” have Union Pacific stitched on them. So glad it’s thrown out.
Well, hate to say it, but it seems like another “deep pockets” lawsuit. Who has the money? Union Pacific of course. I have sympathy for the families affected, as well as the train crew involved, but it seems like the lawyers just want to throw up enough accusations until the UP will just settle for something, and the lawyers get their cut.
Good! They were only after money and nothing else from UP. Hope the lawyers lose their license for being idiots.
The Judge’s decision is consistent with the facts and the law. Negligence is a two sided coin. Not all negligence is caused by corporations in the United States!
Mr. Homan has the best response, IMHO. What or who forced the float driver to put himself and his passengers in such an idiotic position of stopping on the tracks? Answer: No one but the driver. Sad but very preventable accident if the driver had used commonsense and not proceeded over the tracks until there was space on the other side to accommodate both truck and float. Stupidity does kill.
John Sullivan, spot-on. This is a case of an ambulance-chasing (locomotive-chasing?) lawyer from Manhattan, Kansas, convincing victims he has an air-tight case against a wealthy railroad. That lawyer was in Midland almost immediately after the accident. He smelled big money.
It was also my understanding that the town of Midland kind of dropped the ball, too. Wasn’t it so that the town did not even notify the railroad that they would be having a parade that day? Perhaps had the UP known in advance this tragedy could have been avoided.
Regards,
Fred M. Cain
The town and the organizers “assumed” the railroad knew they had a parade going on. The railroad runs trains through there all the time. The end result is a bunch of people died because of “stupidity”. The first thing I learned in the Army before I went to Vietnam and especially when I was in Vietnam “Stupidity has an inherrant self correcting factor” About 10,000 of the 58,000+ losses posted on “The Wall” are in fact non hostile losses. They should have planned the parade out completly and notified the railroad and had someone from the railroad there in communication with the crew but they did not. Now they blame the railroad and just about every engineer has a story about “dumb , stupid” people that don’t want to wait and run the gates or think the train can go from 50 to 0 and stop within 50 feet for a motor vehicle.
Tragic but totally preventable. I agree with everyone’s comments about the plaintiff’s attorneys being held liable for paying Union Pacific’s legal fees. If that ever happened it may slow the frivolous lawsuits brought forth in this country. Certainly feel for the victims and their families but also for the train crew…nobody thinks about them very much and what they go through!
Here we go again. The finger pointing. UP, your at fault, No, Midland, your at fault. UP is the Deep Pocket so we will just have wait for the end results!
Most non-railroad people don’t even give the tracks a second thought! I was the conductor on a UP freight that hit a high centered low-boy trailer with a log loading crane on it. Do you know when the truck driver, fire department and state troopers decided to call the railroad? When they saw our headlight at night 3 miles away. We didn’t see the trailer until the whistle post and hit it at 38 mph. This is typical of John Q. Public…
After agreeing with most of the posted comments I would like to add that the truck driver was negligent. Remembering my driver test to acquire the CDL/ Hazmat portion of license and that was upon approaching a railroad grade crossing the vehicle must come to a complete stop, look both ways and if clear proceed only if enough room to clear the grade crossing. Not sure if the law is exactly as I quoted but it’s very similar. This is why all buses and hazmat carrying trucks come to a complete stop. And I believe this applies to all commercial drivers. So the railroad was in no way at fault.