Don’t be afraid to the blow the whistle if your railroad company is doing something wrong. That was the underlying message of OSHA requiring Illinois Central Railroad Co. and the Chicago, Central & Pacific Railroad to pay an ex-employee $80,453 after they were fired for reporting a work-related injury.

The $80,453 will go to cover lost wages, compensatory damages, and attorney’s fees. The railroad companies also have to provide information to all of their employees about whistleblower rights.

This began when the employee reported their work-related injury to the proper officials from both railroads and an investigation into the cause of the injury was launched. However, this “investigation” resulted in the employee getting fired.

Evidence revealed during OSHA’s investigation revealed the employee was in compliance with the rules and guidelines for reporting a railroad work-related injury and want not at fault, according to the Department of Labor .

“While OSHA is best known for ensuring the safety and health of employees, it is also a federal government whistleblower protection agency,” said Charles E. Adkins, OSHA’s regional administrator in Kansas City.

The whistleblower protections are stated in 49 U.S.C. §20109 of the Federal Railroad Safety Act (FRSA) :

“A railroad carrier engaged in interstate or foreign commerce, a contractor or a subcontractor of such a railroad carrier, or an officer or employee of such a railroad carrier, may not discharge, demote, suspend, reprimand, or in any other way discriminate against an employee if such discrimination is due, in whole or in part, to the employee’s lawful, good faith act done, or perceived by the employer to have been done or about to be done.”

It’s good to see the whistleblower protections under the FRSA being used, and having a successful outcome. The pressure to not say anything in the railroad environment can be intense so it took a lot of courage for this employee to seek legal representation and blow the whistle on these two railroad companies. Hopefully, this ex-railroad worker’s example will be followed by other employees so when they get hurt on the job or notice safety problems within a railroad, they’ll report these issues without the fear of getting fired.

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.

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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If you’ve suffered an injury, whether it be a cumulative trauma injury or lifting injury, while on the job at a railroad, an “ergonomic study” may help in determining whether or not you have a personal injury claim. The word “ergonomics” has several definitions, but most experts agree that it involves designing workplace tools or equipment to make them more user-friendly and safe for workers.

Most of us are familiar with lawn and garden tools that are made with a handle or grip that is more comfortable, and this is a very basic form of ergonomics. However, the field involves not only changing a grip or a way to hold a tool, but more broadly involves changing work tasks themselves, to prevent repetitive stress injuries and cumulative trauma injuries before they happen. Changing the way work tasks are done is known as an “administrative change.” Changing the actual tool or the equipment is known as an “engineering change.” These are the two most common ways ergonomics affects railroad workers and workers in any field that repetitively use hand tools or power equipment, that is used nearly every day at work

Many of the nation’s major railroad companies have made preventing injuries in the workplace one of their priorities, because they’ve learned that preventing injuries saves the company money, so it is simple economics driving the equation. However, this is extremely helpful in establishing whether or not you have a claim since we can evaluate your potential claim against whether the railroad company has taken appropriate steps to help prevent the type of injury you suffered. We must analyze and investigate the railroad’s knowledge and whether it took any steps to prevent the type of injury in the workplace. This is how the field and study of ergonomics is important with regard to railroad worker injuries.

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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Courtesy of Chattanoogapulse.com

A Norfolk Southern train traveling through Chattanooga, Tennessee (TN) near Lookout Mountain derailed leading to a highway shut down and punctured propane tank, according to firefightingnews.com.

A portion of Cummings highway was shut down for at least two days and firefighters needed to patch a 1,000 propane tank which fuels a switch heater on the rail track.

The details of what exactly caused the derailment are still unknown. There are many questions that need to be answered including: was there a malfunction on the track? Had the carrier maintained the tracks properly? Well have to wait and see what the accident investigation reveals.

There were 199 reported Norfolk Southern train wrecks in the United States, and that isnt including highway-rail accidents, according to the Federal Railroad Administration. In addition, there were 134 derailments.

The number of derailments and accidents needs to decrease. If you break down the NS stats, it means an NS train accident occurred roughly every two days. This is simply unacceptable. Fortunately, the rail companies are required to take steps to improve rail safety by implementing new positive train control (PTC) systems under the Railroad Safety Improvement Act which could help reduce and/or prevent major train wrecks. All railroad companies need to comply with the PTC system requirement by 2015. NS would be better served if they installed their PTC system sooner rather than later.

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.

Jeff Garrard and Sung Oh were working away early Tuesday morning (around 1:45am) installing automatic train control equipment on a track that was closed to regular service when they were hit by a maintenance truck near the Rockville Metro Station. One of them died at the scene and the other died while being transported to a hospital, according to the Washington Post.

My condolences go out to Mr. Garrard and Mr. Oh’s friends and family. This is a tragic accident that looks like it could have been prevented.  Where are the increased safety steps that Metro promised last year?

It’s been a very bad year or two for Metro rail in terms of safety. The worst accident in Metro history occurred in June where nine people were killed and over 60 people were seriously injured. Another Metro accident occurred in November when three workers were injured after a Metro train collided with a parked train . In addition, two workers were killed in separate industrial accidents last year. Most recently, in December, a team of inspectors was almost hit by a train that was traveling too fast.

The sheer number of deaths, injuries and close calls indicates major flaws in Metro safety protocols. Something dramatic needs to be done to correct the problem. Far too many people – both passengers and Metro workers – are dying needlessly.

So what can be done about this? Well, Jim Graham, the chairman of Metro board, suggested the federal government introduce federal safety guidelines that need to be adhered to (there are no such guidelines in place at this time). The Obama administration appears to have heeded the request and asked Congress to give the Federal Transit Administration authority to impose safety standards on subways, light rail and other urban train systems, according to the Post article.

Another suggestion is for “active warnings” such as lighted alerts throughout the Metro track to provide a warning of an oncoming train. This would be a stop-gap safety measure until an automatic (positive) train control system is fully installed. Having flashing lights activated to alert workers of an oncoming train could help prevent such accidents that just took the lives of two Metro workers.

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.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is beginning to implement the regulations set forth in the Railroad Safety Improvement Act of 2008 that must be followed by all U.S. railroad companies regarding the use of Positive Train Control (PTC) systems.

Currently, the installation of PTC systems is voluntary and many railroad companies are against the safety upgrades because they believe it’ll be too costly. My colleague, Randy Appleton, wrote about the absurdity of this argument and how the money spent upgrading the safety of our railroads is microscopic compared to the costs associated with a major train crash.

Despite the railroad companies’ protests, the PTC systems represent a step forward in rail safety and train accident prevention. There are various PTC prototypes being tested, but the basic system relies upon GPS technology that reviews train speeds, track conditions and vehicle locations. In addition, the system alerts the rail crew of problems and if the crew fails to respond, the emergency brakes are activated.

This technology is an upgrade from the current systems in place for many railroad companies. Signal systems are the primary technology utilized to assist with coordinating train movement via instructions to train engineers and feedback to dispatchers about vehicle movement. However, signal systems are not perfect and the system failures are possible, according to Susan Kristoff, an engineering consultant.

Given these shortcomings and the persistence of fatal train wrecks across the country, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended a “train control system on mainline tracks which will provide for positive separation of all trains” to the FRA way back in 1987 and listed a positive train separation system on their top-10 list of desired safety improvements in 1990. As you can tell, it’s been a long time coming for these new regulations.

There are currently 11 different PTC projects involving nine railroads in at least 16 different states. These pilot projects are allowing railroad companies to test this technology while gradually implementing the PTC systems in order to comply with the required 2015 deployment completion date, according to the FRA.

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.

Why did railroad companies fail to remove asbestos insulation from diesel locomotive engines? It’s a question with no definitive answer, but I believe it’s simply because removing all of the toxic material cost a lot of money. Many of the railroads knowingly chose to remove asbestos only when other major repairs were being done on the engines. Other railroads delayed removal of asbestos from diesel engines.  These actions fail to seriously follow the advice of the railroad’s prominent medical doctors  who argued that all asbestos should be removed from engines and other places by the late 1970s. By this time, railroads – including the Chessie System (later became CSX) had employees struggling with mesothelioma. Shockingly, these workers did not even have extensive asbestos exposure.

In delaying any action to remove asbestos from diesel locomotive engines, the railroads played russian roulette with its own employees knowing full well that even a microscopic amount of tiny asbestos fibers can cause lung cancer or mesothelioma, even decades after the minimal exposure. In addition, the railroads were knowledgeable by the 1960s and 1970s that railroad workers who smoke cigarettes were facing especially high risks of cancers.

Medical researchers learned, for reasons that are not completely understood, that workers exposed to asbestos who also smoked cigarettes, had about 83 fold relative risk increase whereas there was only a 10 percent relative risk increase in workers who were not smokers!

In other words, the relative risk for smokers of over a pack a day compared to non-smoking asbestos workers was a difference of about 73 fold relative risk increase. This is called the synergistic effect of combining asbestos fiber exposure and cigarette smoking and sadly the railroads never notified railroad workers who smoke about this increased relative risk, but let’s remember the railroads never told workers about the asbestos being in the engines either.

All of this points to a complete disregard by the railroad companies for the health and safety of their employees. It’s outrageous and railroad workers who contract mesothelioma and suspect it was due to asbestos exposure should contact an attorney immediately to discuss filing a claim against the company.

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.

This is the third in a series of posts focused on explaining the pertinent statutes in FELA…

Section 54 - Assumption of risks of employment:

“In any action brought against any common carrier under or by virtue of any of the provisions of this chapter to recover damages for injuries to, or the death of, any of its employees, such employee shall not be held to have assumed the risks of his employment in any case where such injury or death resulted in whole or in part from the negligence of any of the officers, agents, or employees of such carrier; and no employee shall be held to have assumed the risks of his employment in any case where the violation by such common carrier of any statute enacted for the safety of employees contributed to the injury or death of such employee.”

Translation: “Assumption of the Risk” is a legal principle that an injured person cannot recover damages for an injury caused by a danger (or risk) which the person knew existed before the injury and despite that knowledge took action which exposed them to that risk.  Under the FELA, the “Assumption of the Risk” defense is abolished, so injured railroad employees may recover for injuries caused by risks which were associated with their job or workplace.

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.

The Advisory Board of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) decided to revamp their “code of compliance” with attorneys they recommend to railroad workers injured on the job (often called Designated Legal Counsel).

The new regulations prohibit any BLET officer or employee at any level of the organization from soliciting or accepting any gift (except gifts of minimal value), payment, money, loan, promise, or agreement, or anything of tangible or intangible value, from any employer, Designated Legal Counsel, or attorney seeking designated status, who is attempting to promote the officer’s or employee’s candidacy for office, attempting to influence any election on any issue within the organization requiring a vote, and/or has interests that may be substantially affected by the performance of an officer’s or employee’s official duties, according to BLET’s web site.

As an attorney with the privilege of being recognized as Designated Legal Counsel, I applaud the BLET for these new ethics regulations. It’s vital for railroad workers to have quality legal representation by an ethical attorney because the railroad company employs a team of lawyers who will do anything to reduce and/or dismiss any potential claims brought forth by the rail worker’s Designated Legal Counsel.

This is why our law firm is proud to be recognized as one of the most ethically fit in the field of personal injury law. Our attorneys received the highest rating (AV) from Martindale-Hubbell and were inducted into the prestigious international legal society, Primerus.

We will continue to operate in a highly ethical manner and represent the BLET with honor and distinction.

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.

This is the second in a series of posts explaining the pertinent statutes in FELA….

Section 53 – Contributory negligence; diminution of damages:

“In all actions on and after April 22, 1908 brought against any such common carrier by railroad under or by virtue of any of the provisions of this chapter to recover damages for personal injuries to an employee, or where such injuries have resulted in his death, the fact that the employee may have been guilty of contributory negligence shall not bar a recovery, but the damages shall be diminished by the jury in proportion to the amount of negligence attributable to such employee: Provided, that no such employee who may be injured or killed shall be held to have been guilty of contributory negligence in any case where the violation by such common carrier of any statute enacted for the safety of employees contributed to the injury or death of such employee.”

Translation:  “Contributory negligence” is typically careless action by an injured person which contributed to his or her injuries. Under some other laws, if a person’s carelessness contributes in any way to the injuries, the injured party cannot recover any damages due to the injuries. This law says under the FELA, contributory negligence DOES NOT prevent an injured employee from recovering from his or her injuries, as long as the railroad’s carelessness (or negligence) was also a cause of the injury. This is what is known as a “comparative negligence” law. If a railroad employee’s injuries are caused by a combination of the injured employee’s carelessness and the railroad’s careless, a judge or jury (depending on the case), will decide how much they each contributed to the injuries by determining what percent of fault of each party is responsible. The injured party’s award is then reduced by what percent of fault the judge or jury assigns to them. For example, if a judge or jury decides an injured railroad worker has suffered damages due to the injury amounting to $100.00, but the injured worker was 50% responsible for the injuries, the verdict is decreased by the 50% of fault to $50.00.

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 resultsto 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.