2008 Woodie Awards
Congress's responsibility to railroad towns' safety
Henry Beck
Issue date: 3/2/07 Section: Opinions
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Tough regulations and judicial remedies can prevent tragedies and the accidents that worry so many communities. But until Congress adjusts federal law to ensure that states can enforce the real safety standards, tragedies are more likely to occur. In the absence of these consequences, there is just no incentive for companies to make safety a business priority. And when they do, individual victims must be able to win individual awards from juries of their peers to pay for medical costs, lost wages, to provide for their families.
Most decision-makers in Augusta and Washington will never know someone whose life was forever changed just because they happened to go to bed each night in a house near a railroad track. They will never know people who cannot work at a good job because of chronic health problems, or a person who cannot read a newspaper like this because of blindness caused by a chemical spill and rail accident. Most members of Congress don't own the modest homes that typically sit beside rail yards. But a new Congress can do the right thing and make rail lines safer, and stand up for the rights of victims.
Most decision-makers in Augusta and Washington will never know someone whose life was forever changed just because they happened to go to bed each night in a house near a railroad track. They will never know people who cannot work at a good job because of chronic health problems, or a person who cannot read a newspaper like this because of blindness caused by a chemical spill and rail accident. Most members of Congress don't own the modest homes that typically sit beside rail yards. But a new Congress can do the right thing and make rail lines safer, and stand up for the rights of victims.
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