Austin Personal Injury Lawyer - Mass Transit (Airline, Cruise Ship, Train, Bus)

Washington, DC Train/Rail Disaster Kills At Least Seven & Injures More. What Does It Mean For Austin?

Brooks Schuelke — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:51:10 GMT

Yesterday, Washington, DC suffered a horrific train/rail crash when one Metro train slammed into the back of another. The crash killed at least seven people and injured more than seventy others.

In the coming days, investigators will try and figure out what went wrong. The trains were reportedly on "auto pilot" during the wreck, with electronic safety systems designed to prevent rear-end collisions and human operators in place as emergency back-up just in case. Obviously, something went terribly wrong.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the DC Metrorail’s first brush with a lack of safety. In the past, the National Transportation Safety Board has criticized the agency for ignoring safety problems, ignoring warning from managers, and disregarding NTSB recommendations.

I’ve been emailing my friend Rick Shapiro, a Northern Virginia/DC personal injury lawyer, who happens to be one of the top railroad injury lawyers in the country. Rick's a former head of the American Association for Justice Railroad Law section (and now one of Rick's partners currently holds that post), and he's written extensively on railroad safety. It’s really too early to tell what’s going on with this particular Metro crash, but Rick tells me that one of the things that concerns him is that the Metro was working on the tracks near the incident. This work could have likely caused some type of problem. As far as the operator’s failure goes, Rick says that he’s had previous cases involving Metro train wrecks where the Metro drivers were so overworked that fatigue played a big part in the wreck. I also saw a note that the operator of the train involved was one of the most inexperienced in the Metro system.

While Austin is a long way from DC, is the train wreck a warning for what's coming here? As most of you know, Austin's Capital Metro is supposed to start its own rail line shortly. The line was originally scheduled to open in early 2008. The line had its fourth delay in March 2009 when the NTSB shut it down for safety violations. Capital Metro was supposed to announce a new starting date last month, but failed to do so. Now, in the wake of the DC train crash and last year's notorious LA rail crash, we have to ask whether Austin's new line will be safe. And the answer so far is, "I don't know." But at this point, I'm glad that Capital Metro is taking the time to make the system safe so that we can minimize any safety concerns that are out there.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Brooks Schuelke

Will Capital Metro's MetroRail Ever Be Safe?

Brooks Schuelke — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 09:56:12 GMT

It was supposed to open last November. Then the opening was moved to March 30. And as that date approached, the opening was delayed indefinitely so that we now don't have an official opening date for Capital Metro's MetroRail. And yet, earlier this week, we almost had our first fatality from the system. Last night, locan news station KXAN ran the story of Jamel Houston, who claims to have been crossing the tracks at MLK and Airport Boulevard when, without warning, a MetroRail train passed inches in front of him.

For those of you following the MetroRail story, you'll know that this isn't the first issue that the line has had with safety issues. The line was originally slated to open in November 2008, but safety concerns moved that date back. During the demonstration of the line, several cars were trapped on the rail tracks by crossing gates until people manually moved the gates. Then in March, the Federal Railroad Administration cited Capital Metro and its contractor Veolia for additional safety related issues.

Concerns have also arisen about Veolia, Capital Metro's contractor of choice. Veolia, it turns out, is the parent company of Connex, the company that run's Los Angeles's troubled rail line. You might remember that a Connex train operator was found to have been texting at the time of a horrific crash, and now Los Angeles appears ready to cancel the Connex contract for its safety concerns.

I don't want to sound to hard on Capital Metro. I'm actually excited about the MetroRail line opening and am cautiously optimistic about its success and expansion. But it has to be done safely. We can't cut corners on safety and put Austinites at risk just to get it running.

If you're interested in the KXAN story, you can watch the video here:

Should Austin Be Concerned About Los Angeles Train Wrecks?

What A Train Wreck! Literally. New Rail Safety Features Malfunction.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Brooks Schuelke

What A Train Wreck! Literally --- New Rail Safety Features Malfunction

Brooks Schuelke — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:38:19 GMT

As Austin's Metrorail starts operation next month, many are concerned with the prospects of a new danger for Austin's drivers. A "safety demonstration" last week didn't do anything to ease our fears as the "fail safe" system of gates at crossings did fail and trapped motorists on the tracks. Police officers on the scene had to physically push the gates up to let vehicles move as a test train approached.

While it appears that Capital Metro crews have fixed this glitch, who knows what lies ahead? Houston has consistently had problems with train wrecks, with 34 light rail accidents in 2007 and 53 in 2008. With Cpaital Metro's line sharing traffic lanes for three blocks and having more than 70 crossings along the route, it's only a matter of time before train wrecks start piling up here.

Here's a video from Fox 7 about the problems:

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Brooks Schuelke

Should Austin Be Worried About Passenger Train Wrecks, Part 2

Brooks Schuelke — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:47:51 GMT

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post asking "Should Austin Be Concerned About Los Angeles Train Wrecks?" where I questioned whether wrecks similar to the LA commuter rail wrecks could occur here when Austin's first commuter rail line opens (which have now been delayed until March 2009).

Apparently, I wasn't the only one asking questions. Yesterday, the Austin American Statesman ran a front page story looking into the safety of the upcoming commuter rail. In MetroLink Disaster Here? Not likely Capital Metro says, I found comfort in some things, but concern about others.

The notable Los Angeles train wreck occurred when a commuter rail ran into a freight train. Capital Metro is convinced that such a collision will not occur here. LA tracks were dual-purpose, with several entities all running trains at the same time. Unlike their counterpart in LA, Capital Metro has exclusive rights to the rail lines here, and freight trains will not be running at the same time as the commuter trains. Thus, because of exclusive use, the likelihood of a similar wreck is probably small.

Does that mean the trains are absolutely safe? I'm not so sure about that. First, there will be several commuter trains sharing the tracks. In the morning, the occupied trains will be moving from North Austin into downtown with the empty trains going back north. In the afternoon, the occupied trains will be going from downtown to North Austin with the empty trains coming back downtown. These trains, sharing a track and moving in opposite directions, will provide a potential opportunity for collisions.

But the biggest problem or risk is train/vehicle collisions. The first route will cross public streets or privately owned roads in 75 places. Because these trains will be going much faster and will be much more quiet than typical freight trains, each stop will be a potential problem. The article quoted Bill le Jeune, Capital Metro's director of commuter rail, as saying:

The toughest thing to predict is vehicular traffic. You just don't know when you're going to meet the next idiot.

So these newer, faster, more quiet trains will present many potential problems for drivers.

I'm also a little concerned about what's already happened. The article reports that Capital Metro had hoped to run some of the trains at 75 mph in rural areas but that the Federal Railroad Administration was concerned about the strength of the rail cars' superstructures and limited them to speeds of no more than 60 mph.

Federal regulators were also concerned about the fuel tank attached to the bottom of the cars exploding in the event of a wreck so they ordered Capital Metro to install steel cages around each tank. However, the regulators gave Capital Metro permission to wait to make those changes on the its first six cars until it orders more cars.

It will be interesting to see. For whatever reason, some motorists, most notably in Houston, have had a great deal of difficulty safely adjusting to the addition of commuter rail. I hope Austin won't have the same problem.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Brooks Schuelke

Should Austin Be Concerned About Los Angeles Train Wrecks?

Brooks Schuelke — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:20:32 GMT

By now, everyone has heard about the Los Angeles train wreck last Friday that killed several passengers. Unfortunately, there was another train wreck in LA today. In today's wreck, a Metro train collided with a Metro bus. Fortunately, the bus was not carrying any passengers, and the only injuries to the train passengers were minor bumps and bruises.

But are these wrecks warnings about what Austinites should expect. Capital Metro, our local transit authority, claims that we are on track for our first commuter rail line to open this fall. The line runs from Leander to downtown. The route, which is using existing train track, meanders through numerous Austin neighbors, meaning that there might be an increased risk of collision. The LA train wrecks should be a reminder to Austin drivers to pay attention.

We should also hope that Austin's adoption of commuter rail goes better than Houston's effort. When Houston introduced its light rail system, the ridiculous number of train wrecks made national news.

To help avoid the Houston problem, all Austin drivers should read Capital Metro's safety tips.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Brooks Schuelke