The family of a man who died in a railroad accident has filed a lawsuit against the train operators claiming that the accident could have been avoided if better safety equipment had been installed at the crossing.
The wrongful death lawsuit was filed by Steven Bello over the death of his son, Christopher Bello, against CSX Corp., the train’s conductor and the train’s engineer. The suit seeks unspecified damages.
The Suit
According to the lawsuit, CSX and its train operators “failed to take any preventive measures to avoid colliding with the defendant’s motor vehicle,” and were, “careless and negligent.”
The Bello family’s attorney, Martin Fiel, said Christopher Bello was not attempting to “cheat or beat the train,” but was unable to see the crossing because of early-morning glare from the sun.
He claims that Bello was unable to see the security gates or approaching train. He also claims Bello heard no warning horns.
The police report said that Bello never saw the security gates or the train.
A Failure to Act Responsibly?
Fiel said, according to the police report, the conductor saw Bello’s vehicle approaching the crossing and lost sight of it behind a building, but failed to take any action – such as applying the brake or sounding the horn – to prevent an accident.
The engineer did not start to slow the train until after the collision.
“They should have had some sort of reaction. … According to police, they did nothing,” said Fiel of the train operators. “You can’t just let something happen if you have the means to avoid the accident.”
Fiel acknowledged that the train would not have been able to stop completely before coming to the crossing if the brakes were applied, but he said that if the train had slowed, that would have given Bello enough time to cross the tracks.
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