Actual CNN Headline: “4 teens die as stolen SUV slams into idle train”. Now read that carefully. It’s not, “4 teens die as MOVING TRAIN slams into STOLEN SUV”. No, sir’ee Bob! It’s the other way around. Huge, enormous, big as a two story building freight train just sitting there idle, minding it’s own business. Doing whatever it is that freight trains do, relax when they’re not hauling freight… smoking a cigaratte… sipping on some diesel… hitting on the cabooose. And along come these kids in a stolen Jeep – two 15 year olds up front, and four, count them, four 14 year olds in the back – and WHAM! The drive said stolen Jeep into said stationary train. All four in the back are killed, while the two up front including the driver survive. (Queue airbag commercial)
Now, whose fault it is that this happened? Is it the driver of the stolen Jeep? Noooo. Is it the kids in back for choosing to take a ride in a stolen vehicle? Nooooo. How about the parents who raised kids that would (a) steal a vehicle or (b) take a joyride in a stolen vehicle? Nooo.
So then whose fault is it? Why it’s ours of course! Because we choose to make a dangerous RR crossing, duh!
So now, train company and the town will have to run a gauntlet of legal battles, probably end up paying out millions of dollars settlements. And why? Because these kids just couldn’t help themselves from stealing a Jeep and driving into a stopped train. That’s right folks. That high pitched cry you just heard was the sound of personal responsibility taking a knee to the privates for the last time.
I poked around the googles on that one, too. I found an article that said they were already planning to install gates and/or flashing lights in about 6 months. It sounded like the gates and lights were the responsibility of the state and local governments, and not the railroads, although the railroad would do the work because it’s on their property. The money would all come from the governments involved.
Although the lawyers always slink out from under their rocks in cases like this, the railroads have a lot of ammunition. Driving around in a stolen car is a felony in most states, and there are often laws which say you can’t sue someone if you’re hurt while committing a felony.
I watched a drunk guy on a bicycle slam right into the front of a STOPPED car. The cops tried to arrest the driver of the car.[V] He’s lucky I was there and saw the whole thing. The cops arrested the drunk idiot on the bike instead.
I wonder if cops were chasing them? Maybe they’ll try and sue the cops for causing the accident too. Personal responsibility? What’s that???
Any railroad’s legal department could fill you in on a long list of lawsuits where the railroad was acting responsibly, someone was injured or killed, and railroad was sued. In our courts, the guy with the deepest pockets pays, and not the person who was at fault. That’s how things are. [V]
I’m off to McDonalds for some coffee; with luck, I’ll be rich.
You reminded me. Once I was taking a little bike ride and wasn’t paying attention. You can guess what happened, I slammed into a parked car! [D)] No dammage done.
Now you guys got to rember that there is atleast 10% of the blame on a person. Even if they had noting to do with it. So the railroad will have 10% of the blame. What it is? I don’t know. But I still think that that is a little, how should I say it? “Out there”. The railroad should have no blame for it. But you got to rember the railroad probably won’t get sued because the layers would have noting to blame it on. Unless the Train was parked on the crossing, then…we’ll see how it come out.
First you need to read it ALL before jumping to conclusions. No, sorry I need to ammend that. Have someone else read it to you and if you both jump at the same conclusion you both can’t read.
Can you explain how you figure someone has 10% of the blame if he/she has nothing to do with an accident? In the case of you riding your bike into a parked car, why would the owner of the car have 10% of your lack of attention?
You know that is what I heard. I guess that is how our legal system works. The owner of the car would of got the blame for parking his car there. I learned this a while back.(that you get 10% of the blame) Maybe you get less. Like 5%. This is just what I heard a while back.
A sharp lawyer will dig into such things as local bylaws about obstruction of the crossing with respect to how long the crossing can be blocked at any one time, or times of day that it must be clear, or some obscure thing that will place the railroad in an uncomfortable light. Also, the fact that the crossing had been deemed of sufficient danger that it warranted mechanical and electrical devices to warn traffic of an oncoming train…yada yada. Something will pop up that will be apparently relevant enough to have to go to trial, and the Town and the RR will be defendants…jointly or severally.
I don’t mean to say that I am cynical and that this will happen, only that it wouldn’t surprise me in the least. At the very least a coroner’s inquest will lay blame at someone/some entity’s feet; maybe their probation officers’?
I didn’t say too much about anything other than your inability to comprehend the whole thread. Which if you notice, has a link to the CNN video that Ernie Stewart commented on. In that link the Father of one of the kids killed, blamed the RR crossing and the RR.