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Jury selection begins in 2012 Texas grade crossing incident trial
FTA:"…"The corporation encourages people not to take emergency action,” Steve Malouf, an attorney for the plaintiffs, says. “And when the CEO of a company calls a conductor who abandoned his post it reinforces that bias.”
" He [The Plaintiff’s Attny] references a phone call from UP CEO Jack Koraleski to the conductor of the train involved in the incident, in which Koraleski reportedly tells the conductor that he “as he was supposed to” at the time of the collision.
The quoted statement as printed does not seem to make any sense…It would obviously seem to leave out pertinent details of the noted phone conversation.
What was the condition of the Conductor "abandoning his position on the train? Would seem to set up a problematic case…
Just some thoughts???
Hope the full report is submitted when they are trying to sue over their ignorance.
NTSB Finds Parade Float Accident that Killed four Veterans Caused by Lack of Advanced Safety Planning 11/5/2013
A fatal accident in which a freight train struck a parade float in Texas last November was caused by the failure of both the city and the parade organizer to address the risks associated with routing a parade through an active grade crossing, the National Transportation Safety Board said today.
The float, which carried 12 veterans and their spouses and was escorted by two law enforcement vehicles, entered the grade crossing after the grade-crossing warning system had activated. The float continued across the railroad tracks at an estimated speed of 5 mph. At about the same time, an 84-car Union Pacific freight train approached the crossing from the west at a speed of 62 mph. As the front of the float crossed the tracks, the train engineer sounded the horn and placed the train into emergency braking. Seconds later, the train reached the crossing and struck the right rear section of the float.
For 34 minutes prior to the accident, the float had traveled along the parade route with a continuous police escort, which allowed the float to proceed through red traffic signal lights at four intersections without stopping. This created what investigators called an “expectancy of safety and right of way,” which the NTSB said contributed to the cause of the accident, because it led the driver to conclude that police were controlling all intersections and associated traffic hazards.
The NTSB concluded that the noise generated by the parade, combined with the float driver’s expectation of safety, likely reduced his ability to hear or properly interpret the grade crossing system warning bells and lights, as well as the train horn.
The NTSB determined that the grade crossing system provided the required 20 seconds of advance warning through warning bells,
The plaintiffs should be told “sorry” and shown the courthouse door. I predict about a .001% chance that that will actually happen.
My question is and I don’t want to sound unsympathetic to those families of the people who lost their lives but if the float went around the gates that were active and the required 20 seconds of warning was achieved then why is UPRR paying these people a dime? Just sounds a little crazy to me. Again I’m sorry for your lose but suing the railroad is just wrong and frivolous at best. I hope uprr wins in this case and the real people responsible in this accident are brought to justice. IE the parade organizers and the city who failed to let the railroad know what was going to happen that day. God bless those who died and families and friends.
The signal lights were flashing, the gates were down. They drove around the gates, trains can’t stop on a dime! Lawyers!
This story is really garbled. Apparently, the plaintiffs are claiming that the train crew did not brake early enough. The call to the conductor was to reassure him that he had acted properly. If you’re interested better to go to the original story here: http://www.oaoa.com/news/crime_justice/courts/article_7a5b6612-a3e1-11e4-a328-5b13c289881c.html
The text quoted by Mr. Prest seems to be missing a verb, at the very least.
LARRY GAUTHIER from PENNSYLVANIA did an excellent recall of NTSB finding. More than once I have done “Monday morning quarterback thinking” of rail accidents, only to find the NTSB findings “dead on” and me Dead Wrong! The only thing to add to Larry’s remarks: NTSB found a man who worked on parade planning had retired a couple of years earlier. His job:… Notify the RR of the parade! I feel sorry for him in that surely he knows the tragedy could have been prevented. He did so every year! So sad for so many concerned, however a law suit seems not right unless one wants to sue the parade organizers.
This article should have been read by an editor so it would have mad sense. The bottom line here is that an amulance-chasing attorney from Manhattan, Kansas, smelled blood and filed suit before he had any idea what really happened. This law suit is a travesty.
I hope they sue the driver of the parade float!
All of this could have been avoided if the parade organizers had used the grade separated Texas 349. It goes under the tracks instead of over them. Is it possible that the float driver did not want to take the time to “go around”?
I’m from Louisiana where we have parades all the time. During Mardi Gras the local communities tell the BNSF who owns the track around here about the parade and there is a shut down window when no trains are allowed through. There are also Form Cs put into our GTBs any time there is a festival to warn about pedestrians on the tracks. Regardless of the end result, the train has the right of way. It’s a shame that these people are probably going to win money from the UP. They should be suing the driver of the float and the people who organized the parade.
If the police officer motioned for the driver of the truck to cross the tracks, and then stopped him, while the float was crossing, the officer should be held responsible too. He should not have motioned for the truck to cross the tracks if the truck could not make it completely across without stopping on the tracks.