The U.S. Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) not only keeps track of all railroad-related accidents in the United States each year, but it also makes this information available on the Internet for those who want to know more about railroad safety.
In 2010, according to the FRA, Texas saw 803 accidents. This number includes accidents involving only a moving train, accidents involving both a train and a motor vehicle or motorcycle, and accidents that occurred in rail yards and similar areas in which trains are stored or fixed. Of these 803 accidents, 53 of them resulted in the death of at least one person. Twenty-seven of these people were killed when a train collided with a motor vehicle.
According to the FRA, human error – either by engineers, workers, or motorists – caused one-third of the railroad accidents in Texas in 2010. Fully forty percent of the accidents were caused by defective track, while another eighteen percent were caused by defective equipment, including defective signals at railroad crossings.
These numbers indicate that it’s important for Texas residents who have suffered injury in a train accident to consider all the possible causes of the accident and all the different people or companies that may have played a role in the crash. While it’s easy to see a defective signal at a railroad crossing, for instance, it’s not always obvious that a train also had a defective brake part that prevented it from stopping or slowing in time to prevent a crash. Most experienced Texas railroad accident lawyers are familiar with the many ways in which a train accident can occur and are willing to examine a railroad accident carefully to determine what happened and who may be responsible.
