Mother sues CSX over trestle death of her son

[gatorback]

adamh0903:  Read:

Just say you owned a big cat.  And some young boys jumped a fence with bobwire, and went fishing off your dock while having a few beers also puffing the magic dragon. You've got lots of signs, No Trespassing, Danger, etc. The big cat get's one and kills him. Maybe they even taunted the cat.  Even though you have signs, a fence, etc., it doesn't matter...your responsible.  I look at CSX the same way as the cat owner.  Am I wrong? 

Umm...a big cat is not in the business of moving things like coal and freight that are vital to the country. A big cat is a wild carnivorous animal that is unpredictable in its actions. A big cat doesn't own the property that it is capable of roaming around on. A big cat does not have a franchise from the US Government to move around. A big cat does not have a diesel engine. (Except for the D9). A big cat does not stay exclusively on two steel rails.

So....I think you might be wrong here.

This is a tragic accident plain and simple. That the kid did not have a plan B for when the train came through, or did not consider that a train might come through was a serious oversight on his part that resulted in his demise. Kids do things with a lack of forethought all of the time, some of those things are fatal.

Wonderful.  I just LOVE that you are showing your magnificent ignorance to even the most basic case law of the State of  Florida.  Here's the deal.  Midway, in the future, hire a respectable attonerny to defend yourself because it' SO obvious that you have NO CLUE as to the statues in the State of Florida.  OK?

This will be SO entertaining for the reasonable posters here.  Argue the Cat case for us PLEEASE.  I'm begging you.  Because you see Midway, there's no argument for the Cat case, just as there is no argument for the CSX case.

[gatorback]

CSX is self-insured.  It cost the less money that way.  I guess they figure the cost of 'claims' against their revenue as if they know it's going to happen.  Which it is.  The RR is very dangerous.  That's why we set up Rail Road Retirement in the first place.  It protects the family of the men and women who work on the railroad.

[Driven1]

[Ocklawaha]

Just say you owned a big cat.  And some young boys jumped a fence with bobwire, and went fishing off your dock while having a few beers also puffing the magic dragon. You've got lots of signs, No Trespassing, Danger, etc. The big cat get's one and kills him. Maybe they even taunted the cat.  Even though you have signs, a fence, etc., it doesn't matter...your responsible.  I look at CSX the same way as the cat owner.  Am I wrong?

WTF?

Some of you have been lurking about my California finca?

This one is easy, Simply lure the boyz into the nearby abandoned mine shaft and tell them there is free pot and beer deep inside. About 1/4 mile in the drift slope, they'll find the old vertical shaft... The one that once HAD the elevator in it... My guess is, that it's maybe 800 feet to the lower level, straight down. One rewards their pets for not leaving table scraps laying around. Kids gone, big cat full, landowner content that no one else is tresspassing. Victory is a taste to be savored...

Ocklawaha

[gatorback]

Umm...a big cat is not in the business of moving things like coal and freight that are vital to the country. A big cat is a wild carnivorous animal that is unpredictable in its actions. A big cat doesn't own the property that it is capable of roaming around on. A big cat does not have a franchise from the US Government to move around. A big cat does not have a diesel engine. (Except for the D9). A big cat does not stay exclusively on two steel rails.

So....I think you might be wrong here.

This is a tragic accident plain and simple. That the kid did not have a plan B for when the train came through, or did not consider that a train might come through was a serious oversight on his part that resulted in his demise. Kids do things with a lack of forethought all of the time, some of those things are fatal.

This is really the basic heart of the reason for automatic liability in these cases.  In recognition of the importance of the industry, the rails are granted tremendous leeway in local affairs, granted the protection of the feds and given a franchise for operation across many public lands.

Well Stephen you sure do know a lot about the railroad.  But, it hasn't always been that easy for the railroads.  Remember, the giant railroads were not always this powerful they were even more powerful.  In fact, the giant raiload monopoly put together by Morgan and the railroadman James J. Hill, The Northern Securities Company, were sued under the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 by President Who?  Right, Teddy Roosevelet.  Roosevelt directed his attonery general to file suit to dissolve this company, but Roosevelt's antitrust policy did not end the power of the giant corporations or even alter their methods of doing business.

[whitey]

How expensive, honestly would a surveillance camera be for monitors to announce over a PA system to get the hell off the bridge?

How hard to provide an emergency lane so that people can jump out of the way?

The solutions to prevent this string of tragedies from recurring seem fairly inexpensive.

I honestly don't know if you are serious here or not but I will respond assuming that you are indeed serious.

How many thousands of railroad bridges are in this country?  How many people would it take to monitor those thousands of cameras?  Even if there were cameras and an intercom system, since the kids didn't get off of the damn bridge when they heard the train whistle what makes you think they would have gotten off of the bridge if they heard a faint voice coming from nowhere telling them to get off of the bridge?

Adding an emergency lane onto the thousands of bridges?  Have you lost your damn mind?  So we have a problem with kids being where they shouldn't be, so lets make it more inviting to them by adding a nice walkway so its easier to get to where they shouldn't be in the first place.  Within a month of adding said emergency lanes some retard is fishing off of the emergency lane when a CSX train comes by at 40 mph and whips up a small shard of scrap metal near the tracks and it goes into the retards head and kills him.  Then CSX would be liable for that too, right?

The solution to this "problem" is teach your kids not to be an idiot.  Train tracks are used by big, heavy, fast moving trains that can't stop for almost a mile, they are not sidewalks or fishing piers. 

The cost of that solution is exactly zero dollars.

[Ocklawaha]

I agree that CSX has done its part here, and the kid or kids are at fault. Shame the railroad can't sue them! Imagine owning a restaurant called "Boomtown" and the local kids decide that the new game of dare, will be to run behind the counter and stick their hands in the open flame of the stove. A small blister means you are REALLY one hard dude, a blister AND a ticket from the police would mean you are super cool and a 3rd degree burn with some hospital time elevates you to a "god" status in your high school. So every day, the staff is going about the daily business of making excellent meals, and at the same time they have to watch everyone that gets nearby for a run to the kitchen. Perhaps some more signs would do, "KEEP OUT OF THE KITCHEN" they say. Or maybe we just need a wider passage so the cook and the dare-to-burn kids can be kept apart. Fact is many of them won't stick their hand in the flame anyway, they just want to be seen darting into that super cool status spot. I think restaurants should provide them with wide aisles, passing lanes and lots of signs. Sure would make me feel better and damn, I bet that Boomtown couldn't be sued if they took that caution. Well maybe they could. HEY! Maybe a video camera, we'll hire AJAX security and their trusty ACME SECURITY SYSTEM to watch the flame 24/7/365. I mean it REALLY is the job of the restaurant to protect us from these crazy impulses... the building was built on former Native Land and god knows, probably even farm land. So the owner owes us this security system. I'll expect to see it in a restaurant near you soon.

By the way, all that "FREE RAILROAD LAND" and "FREE GRANTS and FRANCHISES" uh, they were NOT FREE! The railroads were required to carry all federal freight and passengers at a fraction of the cost. This rate schedule continued from the 1840/50's right up into the 1950's when the rates were finally repealed. It was estimated that the railroads had paid for their "FREE GIFTS" something like 8 times.

Ocklawaha

[blizz01]

Is it official?  Is this the longest thread in the shortest period yet?

[Lunican]

[gatorback]

The cost of that solution is exactly zero dollars.

Lovely.  The cost of your solution is actually more life.

[gatorback]

I agree that CSX has done its part here, and the kid or kids are at fault. Shame the railroad can't sue them! Imagine owning a restaurant called "Boomtown" and the local kids decide that the new game of dare, will be to run behind the counter and stick their hands in the open flame of the stove. A small blister means you are REALLY one hard dude, a blister AND a ticket from the police would mean you are super cool and a 3rd degree burn with some hospital time elevates you to a "god" status in your high school. So every day, the staff is going about the daily business of making excellent meals, and at the same time they have to watch everyone that gets nearby for a run to the kitchen. Perhaps some more signs would do, "KEEP OUT OF THE KITCHEN" they say. Or maybe we just need a wider passage so the cook and the dare-to-burn kids can be kept apart. Fact is many of them won't stick their hand in the flame anyway, they just want to be seen darting into that super cool status spot. I think restaurants should provide them with wide aisles, passing lanes and lots of signs. Sure would make me feel better and damn, I bet that Boomtown couldn't be sued if they took that caution. Well maybe they could. HEY! Maybe a video camera, we'll hire AJAX security and their trusty ACME SECURITY SYSTEM to watch the flame 24/7/365. I mean it REALLY is the job of the restaurant to protect us from these crazy impulses... the building was built on former Native Land and god knows, probably even farm land. So the owner owes us this security system. I'll expect to see it in a restaurant near you soon.

By the way, all that "FREE RAILROAD LAND" and "FREE GRANTS and FRANCHISES" uh, they were NOT FREE! The railroads were required to carry all federal freight and passengers at a fraction of the cost. This rate schedule continued from the 1840/50's right up into the 1950's when the rates were finally repealed. It was estimated that the railroads had paid for their "FREE GIFTS" something like 8 times.

Ocklawaha

Oh alright, I'll run this down.  Okay, we need a really strick assistant to the manager on duty.  Let's call her Helga.  Helga, is more like a weightliffer/massouse/starving actor.  She, sees the pattern and it really makes her  blood boil.  She 'conveniently' get, you guessed it, a big cat for an up and coming play.  She places the cat, near the kitchen, and do to some scheduling 'error', nobody is working the kitchen that night. Door is openned to the cage, and big cat is on the prawl in the unmanned kitchen.  Kid after kid disappears, shows over, cat gone,  a few more bones/props for the show, Helga gets that movie deal and is off to sunny california.  Problem solved. 

[Driven1]

Im sorry Ock, but the restaurant industry is just as massive as the rail industry, as more people eat than use trains, and we DO have a presumption of responsibility.

If we allowed a group of teenagers behind our bar in our kitchen with access to our dangerous equipment, I could potentially go to jail.

I think CSX should put bartenders at each end of every trestle they own in the country.  In every circumstance, his/her job shall be solely to prevent access to the trestle. 

They wouldn't do as well in tips though, so CSX would have to pay them higher than an average tender salary.

[RiversideGator]

I still dont understand how it is possible to block off all access to railroad tracks since they run throughout the City and State.  Should we never be allowed to cross the tracks just in case we might get killed?  BTW, some idiot got killed today on the Southside when he tried to go around the crossing arms in his car and beat the train but lost.  Should his family now sue CSX?  Where do you draw the line?  This is really stupid frankly.

BTW, I can maybe see some liability for CSX if they had an unmarked crossing somewhere without any warning that a train might be coming and someone got hit while trying to safely cross the tracks.  As it is, this was not the case.  It was clear that the kids were trespassing on the tracks for a long period of time and not just trying to safely cross at a dangerous point.

[gatorback]

"Should his family now sue CSX?" Sure.  However, the family might do better if the sued the FECR the owner of those tracks.

[Driven1]

That's funny cause I had a friend that lives in Green Cove Springs go over there and he actually took pics.  I am waiting on them.  He said it was quite difficult to get to and out of the way.  He said that like most trestles (his grandfather worked his whole life for the railroads) that there really is no way - other than putting up concrete barriers all the way around - to secure it.  And then - it would no longer be usable by the railroad.