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A Big Change for Grade Crossings?
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<div><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva;font-size:small;">In reading the report some more, I am not sure what it is saying about tort reform and crossing liability.</span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva;font-size:small;">I can see two bases for liability:</span></div> <div> <p><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva;font-size:small;">1) Liability for a failure to activate.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva;font-size:small;">2) Liability for the crossing somehow contributing to an accident even though the signals activated and the driver did not yield.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva;font-size:small;">When I think of tort reform solving the liability for crossings, I think of item #2, but not item #1. Somebody certainly should be liable for item #1. But that leads me to wonder if item #2 ever actually happens, or if it is an urban myth. Giving trains the right of way, and then suing the railroad if a train hits a vehicle sounds like a great injustice. But does it really happen, or is it just something that people like to complain about?</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva;font-size:small;">The report reference to the Italian system describes item #2. I would think that there would still be liability for signal failure to activate. I don’t see how you get rid of liability for that unless you get rid of the signals, and put the onus entirely on the driver as zugmann had mentioned. But we have moved beyond that simplicity of responsibility, and placed a variety of warning devices at crossings.</span></p> </div>
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