Charleston Train Accident Lawyer

Train Operations in Charleston

CSX Transportation is South Carolina’s largest freight railroad with 1,269 route miles. CSX transports everything from consumer products and food to automobiles and agricultural products. Another freight operator, Norfolk Southern (NS) operates 679 route miles in South Carolina as part of a larger network of rail lines east of the Mississippi River, and moves equipment, lumber and wood products, coal, chemicals and other products on their lines. Amtrak runs eight daily trains through South Carolina, using freight railroads (one on Norfolk Southern and two on CSX). Amtrak routes in South Carolina with one round trip daily include:

• Silver Star – New York/Tampa/Miami via Columbia
• Silver Meteor – New York/Miami via Charleston
• Palmetto – New York/Savannah via Charleston
• Crescent – New York/New Orleans via Greenville.

South Carolina does not have commuter rail services. There are also a number of Short Line Railroads that serve a small number of towns or industries, like the Aiken Railway in Southwestern South Carolina, which operates 12.45 miles of track between Warrenville and Oakwood, and 6.45 miles of track between Aiken and Seclay. Both tracks are leased from Norfolk Southern.

Train Accidents in Charleston

The majority of train accidents involve a train vs. another vehicle, a bicyclist, or pedestrian. These collisions can be catastrophic, resulting in serious or permanently-disabling injury or wrongful death. Based on rates of deaths in vehicle/train collisions vs. vehicle/vehicle crashes, a motor vehicle driver or passenger is almost 20 times more likely to die in a collision involving a train than in a collision involving another motor vehicle. There have been two major train accidents in Charleston in the past 20 years:

• On February 4, 2018, an Amtrak accident in Cayce, South Carolina injured 116 people and killed two people (both Amtrak crew members). That accident was later determined to be caused by preventable human errors, specifically, a CSX conductor failed to move a switch that would have kept the Amtrak train on the main track.
• January 6, 2005, two Norfolk Southern trains collided due to a misaligned railroad switch. Nine people died in that collision and more than 250 people were treated for toxic chlorine exposure.

Railroad Company Accidents

Many devastating train accidents are caused by negligence of the railroad company, which depends on their employees for safe and on-time movements. Train accidents can be the result of negligent actions of a locomotive engineer and/or conductor. The locomotive engineer operates the locomotive, and the conductor is responsible for the train, weight and crew. Conductors direct communications between the railroad company and the engineer on the train, and are ultimately responsible for the safety of the passengers and workers on the train.