Our
firm has represented over 70 passengers from some of the worst train disasters
in last few decades, including the 2008 Metrolink rail disaster in Chatsworth,
California,in which 25 people were killed and over 135 injured. One of our
senior partner’s, J. Clark Aristei, was a member of the Plaintiffs’ Steering
Committee for the Chatsworth Metrolink disaster. He was also appointed
Plaintiff’s Liaison Counsel to help oversee and manage over one hundred cases
involving the 2005 Glendale Metrolink derailment.
Paul
Hedlund, a mechanical engineer and senior partner, was the only attorney that
testified at a California State Assembly hearing after the Glendale Metrolink
derailment. He advocated for safer practices by testifying to the
discontinuation of “pushing” passenger train cars on railroad tracks instead of pulling them. We
believe that this methodology lead to the deaths and injuries resulting from
Metrolink’s collision with the Jeep left on the train tracks. To further
promote safer procedures, our public relations director and a group of our
clients spent two days in Sacramento lobbying senators on the Senate
Transportation and Housing Committee to vote on banning the act of “pushing” passenger train cars. After almost a year of public outcry, Metrolink reported they
would equip their trains with shock absorbers.
In an
effort to honor the victims of the Glendale Metrolink crash, our firm
organized and funded a memorial one year after the train crash. Families and
survivors were finally able to thank many of the first responders who were on
scene from the Los Angeles and Glendale Fire Departments and the Costco
employees on site that came to help. Two Los Angeles city councilmen and the
LAFD color guard were also in attendance to help pay tribute to the victims.
Over 200 people were injured and 11 were killed from the train derailment in
2005.
Our
first train disaster case involved the Amtrak Conrail train collision on
January 4, 1987 in Chase, Maryland. At the time, it was Amtrak’s deadliest
train crash. Over 600 people were onboard traveling from Washington, D.C. to
Boston when the train hit a set of Conrail freight locomotives while traveling
at approximately 108 mph. The force of the impact caused train cars to land on
top of each other and resulted in the death of 16 people while 175 others were
injured.
Amtrak’s
next worst train crash occurred on September 22, 1993 in Saraland, Alabama when
the train derailed off of a bridge and into a bayou. The crash killed 47
people. Our firm represented 22 victims from the incident.
