Rail bridge collapse in the Chicago suburbs

[John Bredin]

Coal train derails on the Union Pacific (formerly Chicago & North Western) freight-only New Line in the northern suburb of Glenview -- and the rail overpass over Shermer Road collapses! Thankfully, nobody was going through the underpass at the time, and the engine(s) of the coal train did not derail so its crew was uninjured.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-train-derailment-overpass-20120705,0,7165432.story

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/07/04/coal-train-derails-in-northbrook/

 

[Tracktwentynine]

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that cleanup workers found a body in a car buried under all the coal and debris.

 

[WhoozOn1st]

Toll now two, and heat kink may be involved:

2 bodies inside car found in wreckage from train derailment

"While the investigation of the derailment continues, extreme heat causing steel rails to expand is a possible cause of the derailment and subsequent bridge collapse, a Union Pacific Railroad spokesman said Thursday.

"The investigation is likely to take months, but the sequence of events is now clear, according to the UP.

"The preliminary investigation has ruled out the failure of the bridge as the trigger to the accident, said UP spokesman Mark Davis. The bridge was not designed to carry the load of 28 coal cars that derailed, each weighing 75 tons to 85 tons, on the 86-foot bridge, Davis said.

"The derailment occurred and then what happened was that 28 cars piled onto the bridge structure. Under all that weight, the bridge went down," [Davis added].

 

[John Bredin]

In further news, the unfortunate couple's attorney obtained a court order stopping work on the scene, and then filed a lawsuit against the UP.

A couple of gems from the Lindners' attorney:

"Union Pacific has torn the scene apart. We want to stop that.” Umm, the Lindners' car was found in the first place only because UP was tearing the scene apart clearing the debris. Also, considering they were found over 17 hours after the derailment and collapse, I doubt the scene was anything remotely resembling pristine immediate-post-incident condition. And I doubt a proper investigation of how this happened is dependent on keeping the scene pristine for several days. Not to mention counsel's implication is that UP "has torn the scene apart" to destroy evidence, rather than merely to get the rail line open again.

Counsel doubts that it was a sun kink as UP has stated, telling the assembled media "I don't care how hot it was, trains aren't supposed to fly off the tracks and crush innocent people." What's his rail or engineering experience to discount a sun kink -- during one of the hottest weeks in Chicago history?!

As an attorney myself, I don't find anything untoward about the Lindners' estate already having counsel to preserve the estate's rights. But being proactive for your clients doesn't require (1) prejudging and pretrying the case in the media so early on, or (2) filing suit a couple of days after the incident. Keep in touch with UP's counsel, have your own investigators at the scene, keep informed of the progress of the official (UP, FRA, NTSB) investigation, sure. You can always hold a press conference, or file suit, or whatever later on when (or if) you actually have some straw to make your bricks with. Illinois has a two-year statute of limitations on personal-injury negligence and wrongful death suits; for Pete's sake, what's the hurry?! :blink: