Oklahoma family suing railway company after family member dies of heart attack

Oklahoma family suing railway company after family member dies of heart attack, emergency vehicles stuck behind train blocking tracks.

https://kfor.com/news/local/oklahom...-vehicles-stuck-behind-train-blocking-tracks/

I guess they had no emergency helicopters.

https://trainfo.ca/solutions/reduce-emergency-responder-delays-due-to-trains/

It would also be nice if automobile GPS systems could lnk with TRAINFO to warn motorists ahead of time of crossing blockages.

They are suing the wrong organization. Or at least in many other countries that would be the case.
The local authorities are responsible for city planning. If they plan city services and road infrastructure in such a way that emergency services can't reach those in their service area, than the railways are not to blame.

I am sure the railways didn't just build a track there without asking, just like the railway crossings didn't just appear overnight. Bridges and viaducts also have been invented ages ago.

But hé, it's the US; sui-country. The rest of the world will just grab a bag of chips and watch the show.

Apparently, under Oklahoma law, trains are to clear tracks upon command of emergency services authorities. The conductor just closed the cab window and acted stupid. There should be technology to route ambulances and fire engines around crossings that are held up. Perhaps law enforcement should commandeer trains in emergencies as well.

This is the United States and anybody can sue anybody else for most anything. Deep pocket entities usually just offer a settlement and move on, irrespective of the merits of the case.

pitkin said:

This is the United States and anybody can sue anybody else for most anything. Deep pocket entities usually just offer a settlement and move on, irrespective of the merits of the case.

Click to expand...

Railroads are not above the law.

No, they are not, but at the same time who's bright idea was it to make a neighborhood accessed by only 1 street separated by the tracks. I've not seen a map of the area but the article says it was blocking the 1 street to them. Why is there not 2? Single point of failure is silly in anything ever. 1 is none, 2 is 1. Yes its sounds like the conductor was being a (expletive) but surely the organization responsible for the roads around there (town, county, etc) should be added to the defendants no?

iowa wants to pass law limiting train length to 1.5 miles due to blocking roads. sounds great till where are the states going to it going to store the extra cars? where i live in illnois, rock island, they are geting ready to tear up tracks along river to build building etc. and also i would think in iowa even more trains in towns due to now if passed shorter length. not sure if they have really thought it through.

Chances are the tracks were there long before the neighborhood was built. The planers should have taken that into account and had more access routes to the neighborhood built for emergency purposes if nothing else.

Jack

Blocking the road for two hours isn't reasonable especially if it's the only access, I think they have a good case , if it was simply a train passing through it would be different , but have it sitting there for hours shouldn't be something they can get away with without consequences . Getting a helicopter in to fly out the sick person could have cost them many thousands , I've heard of people being slugged over 20 grand for air ambulances in the states.

Sometimes Air Ambulances just aren't available. I was surprised when my uncle, an internist, told me there were none available in the farm country around Rapid City, South Dakota. It was a situation, I think, where a farmer got injured or a heart attack, and died because they could not get him to a hospital in time. And I told him they might want to see if the nearby Elsworth AFB might want to form a cooperative effort. I don't know if they ever did. My uncle passed away years ago.
In this situation I look at Google satellite view, and I see from east to west a town, a set of tracks, and a river. I am sure a lot of people wanted a place by the river, even though they do not have a river road, so they are one-shot accesses across the tracks. I think the article even mentioned they knew that was a potential problem. Having said that, I also believe the train should have moved for an emergency. Maybe a 4WD could have gotten around the train, depending on the ballast, but it seems like the engineer did just not want to cooperate.

JonMyrlennBailey said:

Apparently, under Oklahoma law, trains are to clear tracks upon command of emergency services authorities. The conductor just closed the cab window and acted stupid. There should be technology to route ambulances and fire engines around crossings that are held up. Perhaps law enforcement should commandeer trains in emergencies as well.

Click to expand...

If you send a cop to board and take over my train, you can bet your behind that the cop is going to be physically removed from the train. It is still private property, and they are not trained in locomotive operations.