In the eyes of many, the days in which railroad workers were hurt on the job are in the past. We don’t often think of people getting hurt on railroads, but unfortunately this still happens more often than those in charge of railroad employees’ safety would like to admit. Unfortunately, many people just don’t think about railroad work accidents as much as they do the work accidents we’re familiar with — for example, the classic slip and fall accident that is so often the subject of personal injury lawsuits. There are laws in place to protect railroad workers. However, when they’re hurt on the job these workers often aren’t familiar with them and don’t know where to turn — they don’t know that they have options at all. Luckily they do, with dedicated attorneys ready to help the railroad employees that need them. You don’t have to be overly familiar with railroad law to know your options. If you feel that you or someone you love has been mistreated in some way by an employer — or for that matter, if an accident has occurred on a railroad — there are things you can do to seek justice. The first step is simple: to call a FELA lawyer.
What Is The FELA Law?
In the briefest terms, the FELA law is a law meant to protect railroad employees. However, that’s really selling the law short. Standing for the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, FELA is meant to not only protect but compensate railroad workers who are injured on the job. As you’ll see below, these injuries occur more often than most would imagine. Railroad injury lawyers are those who ensure that the FELA law is followed, as it can be all too easy for employers to get away with not protecting or compensating their injured employees. Essentially, this law was enacted due in part to a boom in railroad work in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As this boom occurred, injuries to railroad workers increased. These injuries could be minor, but they could also be devastating, rendering the employee unable to work for the rest of his life. In the worst cases, the employee died and left loved ones not only emotionally damaged but financially troubled. The FELA protects the rights of these workers and their families, and is perhaps the most important thing to happen in the history of railroad law. Many feel as if in this modern era, railroad law isn’t something that really concerns most of us — they think that railroads are so sophisticated that injuries just don’t happen anymore. As FELA lawyers can attest, this is simply not the case.
How Dangerous Is Railroad Work?
There are many different types of jobs on the railroad. Some employees are more concerned with running trains, like conductors. Others work directly on the railroad, mending damaged railroads and creating new ones. Virtually all of these jobs are dangerous. 2015 alone saw many different accidents and injuries on the railroad. That year, there were 3,919 accidents and incidents on railroads, as well as 240 total fatalities. Of these accidents and incidents, 691 were train accidents, and of those train accidents, 46 were train collisions. 490, in turn, were train derailments. It’s believed that 189 incidents were the results of track issues, while 259 were the results of human error of some kind. Six of the fatalities occurring due to such incidents in 2015 were those of railroad employees, and that same year there were 1,430 nonfatal injuries to railroad employees. These kinds of facts cannot be ignored — and thanks to railroad laws, they aren’t.
How Can The FELA Law Help Railroad Employees?
Once an accident has happened, it’s happened. What’s important is that the injured parties get the recognition and compensation they deserve. The compensation can pay for medical bills that could last a lifetime. The recognition, hopefully, will lead to changes that will make railroads safer.