Working on the railroad has always been a hazardous profession. Injury or death can occur suddenly and without warning. If you or a loved one is a railroad worker who has been injured on the job due to the negligence of the railroad company, you may be able to recover damages under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act or FELA.
Many people don’t realize that, whereas most workers in the United States are covered by the workers’ compensation system, railroad workers actually have a different type of protection on the job. Congress passed the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA) in 1908 as a way to protect railroad workers while they were on the job, as well as to compensate them sufficiently for any injury they receive on the job. For injured employees, it’s important to understand how FELA works for railroad workers.
The operation of our nation’s railroads creates a number of serious hazards for railroad workers, many of whom incur devastating injuries and occasional fatalities. This shouldn’t surprise anyone, since railroad workers are constantly exposed to very heavy, sometimes fast-moving machinery and work with a lot of heavy tools, as well as around a lot of flammable chemicals, especially after a derailment of a train carrying hazardous cargo. They also work around high-voltage electrical lines.
Though their investigation is not complete, officials with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on June 10 have said that investigators looking into the tragic derailment of an Amtrak train that left eight people dead and more than 200 injured last month near Philadelphia was not using his cell phone to either make a phone call or send a text at the time of the accident.