$3 million settlement for deadly railroad crossing

Our firm settled a wrongful death lawsuit against Richmond Pacific Railroad on behalf of the siblings and parents of a young man killed after crashing his car into a metal I-beam on a barrier in front of a railroad crossing arm. The decedent died after the beam pierced his skull. The lawsuit contends the beam, which was part of a structure built to shield the railroad crossing gate from trucks, was unauthorized and improperly installed, using scrap materials from the railroad’s junkyard. The dangerously damaged pile of metal wasn’t removed until after the deadly accident, when the defendants replaced it with a plastic barricade.