FELA Lawyer News Blog

Archive for the ‘Railroad Lawsuits’ Category

FT. WORTH, TX – BNSF has issued a news release in response to an investigative report about BNSF’s conduct in grade crossing and railroad employee safety issues reported by The Minneapolis Star Tribune, calling the report bias.

In their investigative report, The Minneapolis Star Tribune identified 13 cases in which judges allegedly disciplined the railroad for destroying evidence and other legal wrongdoing. At issue was an investigation into a 2003 rail crossing collision that killed four people. ... Read More

HOUSTON, HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS – Gordon, Elias & Seely, LLP, nationwide FELA lawyers, represent a 30 year old railroad employee who was working as an equipment operator at BNSF Railway’s Cicero Yard in Cicero, Illinois. On April 25, 2010, the plaintiff was operating a tractor in order to move a chassis in the yard. When the plaintiff approached the chassis that was to be moved, the dolly legs on the chassis were not raised high enough, which prevented the tractor and the chassis from properly lining up. When the plaintiff attempted to get the tractor under the chassis, the impact caused the plaintiff to be injured.

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HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS – Gordon, Elias & Seely, LLP, FELA lawyers, represent a 36 year old machine operator from Guing, Nebraska, who was working near or around Bovina, Texas when he sustained multiple injuries due to the negligence of BNSF Railway Company. The incident occurred on October 7, 2007,

BNSF Railway Company is being sued by Gordon, Elias & Seely, LLP, under The Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA) which establishes a railroad’s legal responsibilities to its employees for work-related injuries and diseases due to railroad fault.

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Union Pacific Railroad

OMAHA, NE -  An agreement was struck between the Federal government and the Union Pacific railroad over a 2004 train derailment near San Antonio, Texas in Southwest Bexar County.

The company agreed to pay $581,855 to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for that agency’s response to the incident that released 60 tons of chlorine gas.

The deal was formalized in a lawsuit the Justice Department filed on Friday, April 2, 2010.

On June 28, 2004, a 123-car Burlington Northern-Santa Fe (BNSF) train was struck from behind by a 74-car Union Pacific (UP) train in Macdona, southwest of San Antonio. Chlorine gas spread to nearby homes from a punctured tank car on the UP train.

In the incident, the UP freight train was traveling westbound about 45 mph when it struck the side of a freight car of an eastbound BNSF Company train.  ... Read More

HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS – Gordon, Elias & Seely, LLP, FELA lawyers, represent a Victoria, Texas railroad employee who sustained a lower back injury due to the negligence of Union Pacific Railroad.

The plaintiff is a 34 year-old machinist who was working for Union Pacific Railroad around Vanderbilt, Texas near mile post 240.

The incident occurred on October 7, 2009. The plaintiff was traveling northbound on the track from Placedo to Vanderbilt, Texas with a tamper machine following behind being operated by another employee of Union Pacific. ... Read More

ROCK ISLAND COUNTY, IL – Andrew Schulte, a former Iowa Interstate Railroad train employee, was awarded $33 million in damages by a Rock Island County jury last Thursday for a tragic accident that occurred in a Rock Island rail yard in April 2007.

According to the lawsuit, Schulte was trying to pull a pin on a rail car while walking alongside a train on a switching lead. The lawsuit states that the pin lifter stuck, causing Schulte to trip and fall, at which point he was struck and run over by a rail car.

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MADISON COUNTY, WI – On Wednesday, March 17, A lawsuit was filed by Stephen S. Kawa, a former Norfolk Southern Railroad employee, against Norfolk Southern Railroad. The lawsuit claims that Kawa began working as a laborer for Norfolk Southern Railroad in 1978 and finished his career in 2009. Over the course of his 31 year employment, the former railroad worker claims he was assigned duties beyond his physical capabilities and subjected to numerous repetitive traumas which resulted in his multiple injuries.

Norfolk Southern Railroad Company. PHOTO: Businessweek.com

According to the complaint, Kawa also claims that on July 6, 2009, he sustained sustained permanent injuries to his neck, back and body after hitting his head on the roof of a truck.  ... Read More