Opinion: Victims’ families lose, commuters win

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Three years ago, a devastating train crash near Glendale killed 11 passengers and injured 180 others, and the courts are still struggling with the fallout. Fortunately, a state appellate court today put to rest one allegation that could have hurt rail commuters all over the country.

The derailment was allegedly caused by a suicidal man who parked his SUV on the tracks, then apparently got cold feet about killing himself and fled. He’s now on trial for murder, but he’s not the only one with legal problems. The families of the victims sued Metrolink for negligence. Among other things, they claimed that the agency should have known that operating trains in ‘push-pull’ mode was unsafe.

Push-pull is common at transit agencies nationwide. Basically, the locomotive at one end of the train can either pull it down the tracks in one direction or push it down the other; that way, the train doesn’t have to turn around when it gets to the end of the line. Some claim it is easier for a train to derail when it’s being pushed. The train involved in the Glendale crash was in push mode, but a study by the Federal Railroad Administration concluded that the incident would have been just as deadly if the locomotive had been in front.

The appeals court today essentially threw out the portion of the lawsuit that claims Metrolink was negligent for pushing the train rather than pulling it. The suit continues, because the families have other negligence claims against the agency. But the decision could save hundreds of millions of dollars and head off cuts in rail service, because if Metrolink had been found negligent for pushing trains it would have raised serious liability problems for every transit system that operates the same way. They would have had to either buy locomotives for both ends of the train or come up with other costly fixes in order to solve a nonexistent problem. People didn’t die because of the locomotive was at the back of the train, they died because of one man’s aborted suicide attempt. That may not be satisfying to those seeking restitution from the agency, but other transit riders shouldn’t have to suffer because of their pain.