Railroads Backtrack on Positive Train Control (PTC) Measures Despite Accidents

As an experienced Virginia railroad injury lawyer, I was appalled but not surprised to read the railroad industry’s buddies in Congress are pushing back against a deadline to install new safety technology know as Positive Train Control.

This comes despite a rash of recent railroad accidents including a runaway train tragedy that left dozens dead in Lac-Megantic in Quebec, Canada.

AP reported the railroad industry’s friends in Congress are “trying to push back the deadline for installing technology to prevent the most catastrophic types of collisions until at least 2020.”

And that’s about 50 years after accident investigators first called for such safety measures.

The report referenced a 2008 law that called for positive train control or PTC to be up and running by Dec. 31, 2015.

Although some railroads are expected to meet this deadline, most of the industry is complaining about technological and logistical hurdles.

AP reported on how four senators with close ties to the industry recently introduced a bill to extend the deadline another five to seven years.

As an experienced Virginia railroad/FELA injury lawyer, I see the harm railroads inflict on their workers and passengers.

It has taken repeated tragedies to force the hand of legislators. Congress opted for positive train control in the wake of one of the nation’s worst train accidents. On Sept. 12, 2008, a Metrolink commuter train struck a freight train head-on near Los Angeles, leaving 25 people dead and injuring more than 100.

The Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Newport News and Hampton railroad injury/FELA law firm, Cooper Hurley, handles railroad worker’s injuries and injuries on rail crossings in Virginia, North Carolina and West Virginia, as well as automobile, truck, and motorcycle injuries and slip and fall cases, wrongful death and medical malpractice. John Cooper and Jim Hurley have over 40 years of combined experience in railroad-related injuries.

Cooper Hurley represents families who have lost a loved one through another party’s fault in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News and throughout VA, and northeastern North Carolina.. The firm is recognized by other lawyers as “AV” by Martindale-Hubbell, a national attorney rating service, for our top level of legal skill and highest ethical standards. If you need help or advice about a serious injury, please call us or contact us through this website.