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Train travel and freight trains remain an active part of Connecticut’s transportation system, with rail systems in New Haven such as Metro-North, the Hartford Line, and the Shoreline East commuter rail. With hundreds of miles of active tracks across Connecticut, train accidents happen in New Haven and the surrounding area, causing serious injuries and damages to passengers, operators, railroad employees, and pedestrians. Despite the decrease in train travel in Connecticut and elsewhere since the early 2,000s, the number of injuries and deaths has remained steady, indicating potential liability from poor maintenance of older trains and rails, negligent operators, and ill-repaired tracks and crossing gates in potentially dangerous conditions.
Safely operating a train requires hundreds of components to function at their best and for operators and employees to practice due diligence. Sadly, it only takes negligence at a single point in the safe operation of a train to cause an accident and injuries. Common causes of train accidents in New Haven include:
Sadly, some train accidents occur due to those intending to use a train as a means to commit suicide, sometimes resulting in train accidents that injure others. In addition, trains do not have to crash to cause injuries. Many train injuries in New Haven occur due to hazards on the train and inside stations, such as slip-and-fall hazards and other unsafe conditions.
Trains travel up to 79 miles per hour when carrying passengers, resulting in serious injuries in accidents, especially during train derailments when passenger cars tip over. Injuries also occur on trains during sudden hard stops or when there are unsafe conditions, cluttered aisles, and other hazards that are not crash-related. Common train accident injuries in New Haven and elsewhere include the following:
When freight trains carry toxic chemicals, train operators, employees, and those nearby may suffer from chemical exposures after an accident.
It takes a thorough investigation to determine the cause of a train accident and identify the party or parties who are liable for an injury victim’s damages such as medical expenses, lost wages, and compensation for pain and suffering. The most common liable parties in train accident injury claims include the following:
Other railroad employees and services may also bear liability, depending on the nature of the accident. For instance, a train cleaning service could be liable for a slip-and-fall accident if they leave a slippery substance on the floor of a train aisle. Railroad management could be liable for failing to ensure that passengers leave the aisles clear of tripping hazards.
Train accident injury claims are far more complicated than typical car accident claims, often requiring a deep investigation by a law firm with experience in this specialized area. Call the personal injury attorneys in New Haven at the Law firm of Weber & Rubano, LLC for a free case consultation. We are ready to hear about your train accident injury in New Haven and begin a strategy to recover your damages.