WASHINGTON, Aug. 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The families
of three American war heroes who died at a railroad crossing in
Midland, Texas, in 2012 are asking
the U.S. Supreme Court to review their legal case, arguing it could
impact safety at many of the nation's 250,000 railroad
crossings.
The veterans – Army Sgt. Maj. Lawrence
Boivin, Marine Chief Warrant Officer 3 Gary Stouffer and
Army Sgt. Maj. William Lubbers –
were three of the four who died when a Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP)
train rammed a parade float carrying wounded war heroes. The
veterans' families sued Union Pacific, but a Texas court granted summary judgment for the
railroad and the 11th Court of Appeals in Eastland affirmed. Earlier this year, the
Texas Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
"We believe the Texas courts
have made significant errors of nationwide importance and
we're asking the U.S. Supreme Court to correct them before there's
another needless tragedy elsewhere," said attorney Doug Alexander of Alexander Dubose & Jefferson in Austin, who represents the plaintiffs.
According to Mr. Alexander, the most critical error involves the
amount of warning time that elapsed before the Union Pacific train
entered the Garfield Street crossing, where the crash occurred.
Based on a federally mandated agreement between the railroad and
the Texas Department of Transportation, the warning time was
supposed to have been set at 30 seconds.
Union Pacific actually set the timer higher – to 35 seconds –
which compensated for a defect in the track's warning-system
circuitry and allowed the system to give 30 seconds warning, as it
was supposed to.
Then, eight months before the crash, Union Pacific reduced the
warning time by 10 seconds, without getting written approval from
the Texas DOT or the City of
Midland, as it had agreed to do. Coupled with the circuitry
defect, the float the veterans were riding on received only 20.4
seconds of warning, almost 10 seconds less than mandated.
Union Pacific argued the warning still exceeded the 20-second
minimum that a Federal Railway Administration (FRA) regulation
requires and the Texas courts
agreed.
But the plaintiffs argue the 20-second amount is a baseline
minimum, not intended to replace the requirements of the agreement,
but rather enforce them. They point to one of the FRA's own
bulletins, which says some crossings require at least 35 seconds of
warning time or even more.
"If this decision is allowed to stand, then Texas courts have effectively nullified the
federally mandated agreements for warning times at crossings all
over the country," Mr. Alexander said. "We don't believe that's
what Congress intended and we certainly don't believe it is
safe."
Supporters of the veterans' families have been signing an online
petition
(https://www.change.org/p/union-pacific-justice-for-all-veterans-killed-by-union-pacific-train)
asking Union Pacific to take care of the veterans' families.
The case is Catherine Stouffer
et al. v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., in the Supreme Court of
the United States.
Contact:
Mark
Annick
800-559-4534
mark@androvett.com
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content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/veterans-families-ask-us-supreme-court-to-hear-midland-train-crash-case-300909303.html
SOURCE Alexander Dubose &
Jefferson LLP