LOS ANGELES– The following press release is being issued by The Pfiester Law Corporation, of Los Angeles, California.
Ten surviving victims of the catastrophic head-on collision of a BNSF freight train and a Metrolink commuter train on April 23rd in Placentia, California, filed a class action lawsuit against the two railroad companies today alleging that the crash could have been avoided if BNSF and Metrolink had invested in advanced technology and made sure that their employees had adequate time off to rest.
The lawsuit comes on the heels of a $2.125 million jury award for a single plaintiff against BNSF last month in San Francisco and only a few days after National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairwoman Marion Blakey told the U.S. House Railroad Subcommittee that an automatic railroad braking system would have prevented the deadly wreck. Blakey testified that automatic braking has been on the NTSB’s “Most Wanted List” since 1990 and that without the systems, “preventable collision accidents will continue to occur and will continue to place railroad employees and the traveling public at risk.”
The Congressional hearing was conducted at the urging of U.S. Representative Bob Filner (D-San Diego), California’s only member of the subcommittee. Filner is co-sponsoring legislation introduced in Congress in May that would limit the work hours of train employees and signal workers and mandate that train workers have clean, quiet sleeping quarters when they are off duty.
“Chairwoman Blakey’s testimony last week before the U.S. House Railroad Subcommittee was forceful and specific,” said Los Angeles attorney R. Edward Pfiester, Jr., of The Pfiester Law Corporation, of Los Angeles, who represents the Plaintiffs in both the San Francisco case and the class action filed today. “Federal investigators are focusing on human error caused by engineer fatigue as a factor in the BNSF-Metrolink crash, and the highest ranking transportation safety official in the Nation has testified that railroads should install automatic braking systems as safeguards for tired engineers and conductors. This technology has been around for years, yet the railroads continue to say that more study is needed, while people are dying and being maimed.”
Filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Harbauer, et al vs BNSF, et al alleges that both BNSF and Metrolink bear responsibility for the crash because they failed to take adequate steps to protect employees and passengers. The suit seeks compensation for the victims’ personal injuries, past and future wage loss, medical expenses, and punitive damages.
“There are a number of actions that the carriers could have taken to avoid this horrific crash, had they given as much consideration to safety as they did to costs,” said Pfiester. “BNSF’s locomotive engineers, in effect, are being directed to crash into other trains — in the case determined by a jury last month, it was a ‘cut’ of stationary railcars; in this case, unfortunately, it was a commuter train. It is very unlikely that this crash would have occurred if the railroads had proven, long-available technology and if their employees had adequate rest.”
The lawsuit alleges claims against both BNSF and Metrolink in a number of areas. First, the complaint charges that BNSF was negligent in its operations and in management’s oversight of the railroad’s employees. Specifically, BNSF’s “availability policy” allegedly forces engineers and conductors to work extremely long hours with erratic schedules that prevent regular sleep cycles and adequate rest. In addition, the complaint cites management error and gross misconduct on the part of BNSF, based on the railroad’s “availability policy” and calls into question the railroad’s intentional decision to save money by refusing to install a Positive Train Control (PTC) or automatic braking system.
The PTC system is long-available satellite technology that uses the Global Positioning System (GPS) to discern when two trains are on a collision course and to automatically apply the brakes on both trains to prevent a crash. An automatic braking system also slows trains that go past a yellow signal and stops them before they go past a red (absolute block) signal. Pfiester said that BNSF has failed to install PTC technology on all of its locomotives. The lawsuit also alleges that Metrolink breached its obligation to provide the “utmost duty of care” to its passengers by failing to install the PTC system or the automatic braking system on its locomotive.
“The Positive Train Control and automatic braking system has been proven to be reliable and has been available for several years; in fact, it was used in Southern California by BNSF for a period,” said Pfiester. “Had the BNSF locomotive been equipped with PTC technology or with signal-related automatic braking, rather than merely monitored by the railroad’s fallible human engineer and dispatcher, it is highly likely that this horrific crash would not have occurred.”
Pfiester said he has obtained information in deposition indicating that another major railroad carrier, which is not involved in the crash or lawsuit, Union Pacific, has installed the GPS system on about 1,500 of its 7,000 locomotives thus far and is moving forward rapidly to install it fleet- wide.
“The cost of the system is minor when compared to its potential for saving lives and preventing human trauma and suffering,” Pfiester said. At least two persons were killed and nearly 300 injured in the April 23rd crash.
For years, Pfiester said, BNSF locomotive engineers and employees in train service — conductors and those operating switches — have complained that the railroad’s corporate policy effectively prevents their having regular rest days and consistent full nights of sleep. In fact, some BNSF employees have said that management requires them to take off only one weekend per month and be available to work at least 75% of the time, day and night — they must meet both criteria or be cited for discipline. By contrast, the average American, with a 40-hour workweek, is available for work 22% of each month.
Under federal work-hour rules, a railroad can force employees to return to work after they have been off duty for eight hours. The result is that many employees work two eight-hour shifts in one 24-hour period, a cycle that often is repeated for many weeks. Pfiester said that forcing employees to work such shifts allows railroads to save huge amounts of money on health, welfare and vision plans, as well as on retirement benefits. Although a commercial airline pilot is permitted to fly only 100 hours per month and a truck driver may be on duty no more than 260 hours per month, railroad operating crews can and do operate trains up to 432 hours per month.
“This type of shift work interferes with the natural circadian rhythm and causes a type of ‘rolling fatigue,’ notwithstanding that these employees are required to operate moving equipment that weighs millions of pounds,” said Pfiester. “In recent years, BNSF employees’ family members have picketed the railroad over the long hours in several places in Southern California, including Los Angeles and Bakersfield, out of concern for their loved ones’ safety. In response, BNSF conducted its own ‘study’ and concluded that its workers are not affected by lack of sleep. They merely were giving lip service to this problem, which is pervasive in the industry and patently dangerous.”
The Pfiester Law Corporation is a plaintiff’s personal injury law firm that specializes in major personal injury matters. It has more than 25 years experience representing injured railroad employees and the public successfully in lawsuits against railroad corporations, including a substantial confidential settlement obtained on behalf of the widow and child of the first person to die in a Metrolink crash, which occurred on November 25, 1992. Ironically, just prior to that crash, Metrolink and Amtrak officials — whose employees operated the trains — had gone on television touting the systems’ safety.
R. Edward Pfiester, Jr. is the only California lawyer listed as a “Railroad Law Specialist” in Best Lawyers of America. According to Jury Verdicts Weekly, Inc., he has won more court cases against railroads in the past 25 years than any other California lawyer. He holds the “AV” Martindale Rating, which is the highest rating for legal ability, expertise and ethics by Martindale-Hubbell, the United States’ largest and oldest lawyer rating company.
More information about the lawsuit and law firm may be obtained by contacting the Pfiester Law Corporation at (323) 662-6400 or by accessing the firm’s website at www.pfiesterlaw.com .