By, Rick Shapiro, Personal Injury Attorney
A MARC commuter train derailed at a Union Station yard, in Washington D.C. near Virginia (VA), Friday November 5 after colliding with an Amtrak switch engine pulling two rail cars. The accident injured seven people and caused rail delays for much of the day, reports The Washington Post.
Seven Amtrak workers and two other people were aboard the trains, six Amtrak employees were taken to the hospital with a wide range of injuries, thankfully though none was considered life-threatening. When a powerful piece of equipment like a train derails, usually the injuries are very severe. The workers were lucky to escape with only "minor" injuries.
One Amtrak engineer was thrown against the console in the locomotive and suffered a bruised chest, said Joe McHugh, Amtrak’s vice president for corporate communications.
The MARC train had seven cars. Four derailed, twisting at least one segment of track. An Amtrak locomotive was pulling a rail car and a privately owned passenger car with the owner and a man on board. One man injured his hand but declined treatment, Amtrak officials said.
It is still unknown what caused the trains to collide. Amtrak investigators will examine switches and tracks, interview the workers involved and look at dispatches from operations personnel.
We want to be a resource and help you in your time of need, so I encourage any railroad worker hurt while on the job to view our free guide, "A Railroad Worker’s Rights When Injured On the Job."
About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm (VA-NC law offices ) edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard, and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard as a pro bono service to consumers.
Rick Shapiro has practiced personal injury law for over 30 years in Virginia, North Carolina, and throughout the Southeastern United States. He is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (ABA Accredited) and has litigated injury cases throughout the eastern United States, including wrongful death, trucking, faulty products, railroad, and medical negligence claims. During his three-decade career, Shapiro has won client appeals before the VA Supreme Court, VA Court of Appeals, NC Supreme Court, SC Supreme Court, WV Supreme Court, TN Supreme Court, and three times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, underscoring Shapiro’s trial achievements. In addition, he and his law firm have won settlements/verdicts in excess of $100 million. His success in and out of the courtroom is a big reason why he was named 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” in railroad law in U.S. News & World Report's Best Lawyers publication (Norfolk, VA area), and he has been named a “Best Lawyer” and “Super Lawyer” by those peer-reviewed organizations for multiple years. Rick was also named a “Leader in the Law, Class of 2022” by Virginia Lawyers Weekly (total of 33 statewide honorees consisting of lawyers and judges across Virginia). And in September 2023, Rick was selected as a recipient of the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA) 2023 President’s Award. Although many nominations were submitted from across the country, Rick was just one of eight attorneys chosen by the prestigious National Board which certifies civil trial attorneys across the U.S. Rick was also recently named to Virginia Lawyers Weekly 2024 Virginia’s Go To Lawyers Medical Malpractice. The attorneys awarded this honor are nominated by their colleagues and chosen by a panel from the publication.
Comments for this article are closed.