By Rick Shapiro, Railroad Accident/FELA Lawyer
CSX decided to put 40 train cars on a railroad track that crosses the path between a home and a road. What CSX failed to realize, or purposely neglected, was the fact that Aretha Brown lived in that home. She’s been forced to crawl underneath the railroad cars in order to get to the road, according to the sunsentinel.com.
Upon hearing about this problem, CSX refused to move the train cars and said they plan to build an access road within two to four weeks. This is one of those moments when you have to shake your head in disbelief. What is CSX railroad thinking?
Ms. Brown, a woman who is 66 years old, is forced to crawl under your trains! She crawls in order to get groceries. She crawls in order to get to her mailbox. She even crawls to get to Church. And what is CSX’s response? We’ll get around to fixing this problem within a month.
What if, in that time, Ms. Brown suffers a low back or spinal cord injury? She already has a history of back problems. What if she tears her ACL or gets trapped under the railroad’s train cars? Someone at CSX really needs to think this situation through. Talk about a public relations nightmare. We all realize that there will be occasions when a train cannot be moved right away. But once CSX learned of this issue, they should have had their PR team meeting with Ms. Brown to work this out with her any way they had to. Offer to put her in a hotel for a week! Turn it around in a good way? No way…not CSX.
CSX shouldn’t say they’ll fix it in a month; don’t even say two weeks. This problem should have been fixed yesterday. Either move your train cars or get a crew out there to build the access road in 24 hours. It can be done, especially considering CSX generated $305 million worth of profit in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to rttnews.com.
The actions taken by CSX are somewhat surprising since they talk a good game about being focused on customer and employee safety. On their web site , CSX proclaims Safety is a way of life at CSX. It’s one of our core values and it affects every decision we make.
How safe is it for a 66-year-old woman with back problems to crawl under your train cars? Or how safe is it to expose your employees to dangerous diesel exhaust fumes or to have asbestos on your diesel engines for decades but never tell the employees operating them? That contradicts CSX’s proclamation that they send every employee home safely every day.
I agree safety should be a top concern of CSX, and every other railroad company, but when a CSX train derails in LaGrange, Georgia (GA) spilling 300 gallons of diesel fuel it makes you wonder if safety is really a top concern.
CSX isn’t the only railroad company that likes to present themselves as safety conscious, while truly focusing more on profits. Railroads like Norfolk Southern, Amtrak, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Union Pacific, and others have engaged in similar questionable proclamations described above. However, not taking action when an elderly woman is forced to crawl underneath train cars is probably a distinction that belongs exclusively to CSX!
About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton is an injury law firm with a long history of representing hundreds of railroad workers in FELA/ railroad injury cases. Check out our railroad injury case results to see for yourself. Our offices are in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA) and Elizabeth City, North Carolina (NC). Our lawyers hold licenses in VA, NC, SC, WV, KY and DC and have handled railroad injury and FELA cases throughout the eastern U.S. We would like to send you one of our FREE reports about railroad injury and FELA cases, including Do’s and Don’ts When Injured at a Railroad – The Railroad Worker’s FELA Rights and What Railroad Claim Agents Won’t Tell You (But You Must Know). We are ready to talk to you by phone right now—we provide free initial confidential injury case consultations, so call us toll free at 1-800-752-0042 before giving any statement or talking to a railroad claims agent. Our injury attorneys also host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube . Furthermore, our lawyers proudly moderate the Yardlimits Railroad Community Forum and donate to the Fallen Brother Fund.
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