(The following story by Pamela Manson appeared on The Salt Lake Tribune website on June 12.)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — The Utah Supreme Court revived a wrongful death suit today brought by the widow of a man who was killed when a freight train struck his dump truck at a crossing in Nephi.
The court, in a unanimous ruling, sent the lawsuit back to 4th District Court for the litigants to present evidence on whether the city had a responsibility to remove a line of trees that allegedly obstructed Shelley Elder’s view of an oncoming train.
The trees were on land owned by Nephi and ran parallel to the railroad tracks.
Elder, 37, was killed in May 1998 when a Union Pacific train pulling 91 cars struck his vehicle at a Center Street crossing.
His wife, Nan Elder, sued both the railroad and the city in 1999. A trial judge dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that neither defendant had a duty to assure that the foliage did not block motorists’ ability to see approaching trains.
The Supreme Court agreed that Union Pacific had no control over the trees and therefore no responsibility to remove them. The city’s obligation could be different, though.
“The common-law duty of a governmental entity to safeguard those who travel its roads may … extend to visual hazards located on its land outside the bounds of the roadway itself,” the Supreme Court said.