Mother sues CSX over trestle death of her son

[RiversideGator]

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

My point is the same, regardless of the owner of the tracks.

[Driven1]

Should this case not settle out of court (we all know that it will) and it goes before a jury, they are going to have one heckuva time trying to follow all the analysis in this thread.

[gatorback]

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

My point is the same, regardless of the owner of the tracks.

LOL.  Actually the owner of the land is important.  But I understand what you're saying.  This is why the Real Property department at CSX sells crossing grades and leases them back all the time.  If they don't own the track, then they are not the ones ultimately responsible.  Image this.  You're hill billy Martha and her husband billy bobby.  You get a call from Brenda over at the railroad.  They offer to sell you the gradcrossing on your property for say 1000.00 and lease it back from you for 100 years at $100.00 per month .  (CSX does this all the time, I helped write the computer program they use for this.)  Anywho, the point is if CSX doesn't own the grade, and they smash into a car crossing the grade, then they are less responsible and in fact, is the hill billy's liability.  (Same thing with those cell towers, the cell company always leases the land for the towers for the same reasons.)

[thelakelander]

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.

A friend went out to the actual tracks yesterday. He says that the way the trestle is built it would be pretty easy to block access to walkers.

I have to tell you I would be one of those kids on the bridge walking across to the other side.

It looks pretty cool actually.   Hopefully I would also have been one of the ones that jumped.

Here's an image posted by Lunican.  How does your friend propose to block out pedestrians, but not trains?

[thelakelander]

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.

There's no research needed to see that the bridge is isolated and surrounded by wetlands.  I quick look at Google Maps confirms this:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=orange+park,+fl&ie=UTF8&ll=30.080644,-81.756821&spn=0.030377,0.050426&t=h&z=15&iwloc=addr

You can't reach this site, unless your determined to trespass on CSX property to get there.

[thelakelander]

electronic gate automatically springs to mind.  Obviously.

Of course, Im sure that we will now hear a hundred posts about how the Railroads dont know how to set up switching mechanisms or gates and assoicated drivel.

So the willed trespasser can climb over them?  I guess they could always wire the gate up to send a couple of bolts of electricity into the guy who tries to climb over it.  However, juicing the offender up could also bring up a lawsuit.

[gatorback]

Lake: you're getting it now.

Stpehen:  not only have the rr never heard of any of that, they'll likely say they don't have to money for them either.

[gatorback]

Expect to see something like this regarding this lawsuit:

Dec. 20--A settlement has been reached to resolve a civil lawsuit against a Racine animal park, but the terms will be kept confidential and the court file sealed.

Lawyers met with Olmsted District Judge Robert Birnbaum on Friday to review terms of the settlement stemming from a tiger attack on a Rochester girl two years ago. That hearing was conducted in the judge's chambers.

The stipulation that the terms of the settlement will remain confidential was entered into the record in open court after the closed-door hearing. It also was noted that the entire file would be sealed.

The civil suit stemmed from a tiger attack on Emily Hartman while she visited the BEARCAT .

[gatorback]

And in San Fransisco, this will not matter at all in their lawsuite:

SAN FRANCISCO â€" One of the three victims of San Francisco Zoo tiger attack was intoxicated and admitted to yelling and waving at the animal while standing atop the railing of the big cat enclosure, police said in court documents filed Thursday.

[gatorback]

Wow.  A stripper mauled by a tiger in an Ontario safari park has won $650000 in damages....

[Driven1]

LOL

[Lunican]

This may be a contributing factor in this accident. It is very difficult to judge the speed on an oncoming train.

http://www.youtube.com/v/YKy3cLovr-U

[Driven1]

that is a cool video (the train was loud too).  but, if you are not on the tracks, judging the speed of the train is not a factor you need be concerned with at all. 

[gatorback]

Yes.  The size of the train plays a huge roll in the perception of how fast the train is going day or night.

[downtownparks]

Well that settles it. I wont go fishing on railroad trestles anymore.