Train accident attorneys at Pintas & Mullins Law Firm report that a Metra employee in Chicago was recently struck and killed by a commuter train in the South Side neighborhood of Kenwood. This was the latest in a string of incidents around Chicago involving train and vehicle wreckage.
The Metra worker, 36-year-old Luis Mercado, was performing work on a track near 47th Street when a train struck and killed him. He was hit by train Number 223, which departed Millennium Station around 1:15 p.m. that afternoon and was scheduled to arrive at Blue Island at 2:07.
Mercado was a trackman and had been employed by Metra since 2001. About two years ago, in December 2011, an appeals court ruled in a tragically bizarre case centered on a man similarly struck and killed by a Metra train while crossing the Edgebrook Metra station tracks. When he was hit by the train a part of his body was sent airborne and injured a bystander.
The 58-year-old woman was knocked to the ground, injured her shoulder, and broke her leg and wrist. The women then brought a personal injury lawsuit against the deceased’s estate. A Cook County judge dismissed her case, however a state appeals court ruled that it was reasonably foreseeable that the man would have been hit by the high-speed train, and that it would fling his body down the tracks toward a platform where people were standing.
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The deceased’s mother filed her own lawsuit against Metra and the Canadian Pacific Railway. She alleges the companies were negligent because her son had no warning that the train approaching the station was not actually his Metra train but an express Amtrak train. There apparently was no announcement at the station that day that his Metra train was delayed.
Another woman died two months after this incident at the same Edgebrook station. The woman was struck and killed by a train while following her sister across the tracks. Her family alleges the Metra engineer failed to keep a lookout and blow the horn in time. The case settled in an undisclosed amount.
In related news, a man was recently ordered held in $75,000 bail in Chicago for allegedly striking and dragging a police officer with his vehicle in Hyde Park. The incident occurred around 10:45 p.m. on Saturday, July 6, 2013, and involved an on-duty officer assigned to the Gang Enforcement Unit.
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After the crash the officer’s partner shot his weapon at the BMW, although no one was hit. The driver of the vehicle fled the scene and left his vehicle on the 6700 block of South Jeffery Boulevard. The 26-year-old man was ultimately charged with two counts of aggravated battery to a police officer. Fortunately, the injured officer was treated and released from Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
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Just a day before, a driver for the U.S. Postal Service was charged with misdemeanor DUI after crashing his postal truck on the Chicago Near West Side. The driver, Thomas Hackney, crashed his 2001 mail truck on the 300 block of North Ashland at about 5:30 p.m., according to the Sun-Times. Hackney is still employed with the U.S. Postal Service, however the agency is conducting its own investigation into the crash, and his job status will be determined only after the investigation.
Train and auto accident attorneys at Pintas & Mullins Law Firm have decades of experience advocating on behalf of those injured by negligent drivers, automakers, and train engineers. Those seriously injured may be entitled to significant compensation for past and future medical bills, lost wages, and emotional distress with the help of a skilled personal injury attorney.
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