Dallas Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Engineer Gets 2.8 Million for Train Crash Accident

 

A jury awarded $2.8 million to a railroad engineer who sustained back injuries and experienced severe post-traumatic stress disorder following a train accident. On Oct. 9, 2006, Lloyd Rand, then 55, was driving a BNSF Railway Co. train when it left the main tracks for a siding that had been negligently left open by BNSF employees. The train struck a line of stationary railcars at 36 mph and derailed in Etter. Rand suffered a lumbar injury which continues to limit his mobility despite physical therapy and trigger point injections. The back injury, coupled with his PTSD, rendered him unable to return work for the railroad.

Worker Gets 1.3 Million for Train Collision

A jury awarded $1.3 million to two railroad workers who were injured when a string of railcars struck their locomotive. In 2007, conductor Russell Williams, then 45, and engineer Kelvin Brooks, then 39, were working in the Port Terminal Railroad Association's Pasadena yard when the collision occurred. Williams, the more seriously injured of the two, claimed he sustained a herniated disc that ended his career as a conductor. He underwent two surgeries in 2007, as well as a one-level lumbar fusion in 2008. Brooks sustained meniscus and ACL tears and a herniated lumbar disc. He underwent knee surgery six months after the accident. The PTRA, which controlled the railcars involved in the collision, argued that the crash occurred at only 1 mph and couldn't have caused the injuries.