Not too long ago your South Carolina wrongful death lawyers discussed several train accidents that occurred within a 24 hour span, as well as noted how dangerous, not to mention illegal, it is to go around railroad crossing arms when they are down. But, last Friday, Friday the Thirteenth, a dump truck made an illegal left turn onto a set of tracks and was hit by a commuter train.
The monstrous impact of truck and train was described as something similar to an explosion by passengers, sending the train off the tracks, shattering windows, and starting a fire on car one. As for the dump truck, your truck accident attorneys mentioned in the last post on trains that it is highly, highly unlikely for an individual inside a motor vehicle to survive a collision with an oncoming train, and sadly this incident sided with the statistics. The driver of the dump truck was killed.
Thankfully, none of the passengers onboard Metra Train 636 suffered serious injuries. But, 30 or so people, including the train’s engineer, were taken to local hospitals after the collision.
Fortunately, even though forced off the tracks after striking the dump truck, the train managed to stay upright, possibly preventing passengers from being more seriously hurt.
In the article, provided by a local ABC news source, it described the evacuation of the train after the accident as orderly, despite the flames in car one. And according to Metra officials, there could have been as many as 850 people onboard the train. Many of the riders said they were happy to be alive, and felt fortunate that the accident wasn’t any worse.
Railroad safety advocates say, despite the risk of serious injury and death, it is not uncommon for people to underestimate the threat of oncoming trains, and that is why some people attempt to cut in front of trains by going around railroad crossing arms. But, due to the size of trains it is difficult to accurately judge of how fast a train is coming, and that underestimation can cause a fatal auto accident, or as we have just seen, a fatal truck accident.
Image by Lachlan Source URL: flickr.com…
