Commuter Train Crash Injures 34 people | Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp

Anyone who has visited New York, or has family in the Big Apple knows that driving and finding a place to park is nearly impossible. So, many people rely on mass transit or public transportation to get them where they need to go. Most times this is a reliable and safe way to travel.

As a mass transit injury attorney in Virginia (VA), though, I’ve seen an increase in commuter train railroad wrecks and injuries. Just this past weekend a commuter train from New York pulling into the Hoboken, NJ, station for its final stop crashed into the bumpers at the end of the railroad tracks Sunday morning, injuring 34 people and shutting down service indefinitely.

Investigators are probing whether a PATH train operator is to blame for the derailment. The Port Authority and National Transportation Safety Board haven’t reached any conclusions yet.

Many of these trains are nearly fully automated. So why are there so many crashes? Well, many times these types of railroad wrecks occur when the train operator is distracted. As a train injury attorney I feel safety is the highest priority for these companies, their train operators are responsible for the lives of hundreds of people. Probes of similar end-of-the-line railroad accidents have been attributed to human error, including a smash-up at the Grand Central end of the Times Square shuttle.

So what’s the solution? I’m not sure, it may be employing two operators for even greater safe guards, but whatever the solution I hope commuter railroad companies act soon to prevent any more passenger injuries. Our law firm has written extensively about metro crashes and handles cases related to railroad injuries.

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