Federal Panel Investigating Commuter Train Wreck
The effects of text messaging while driving extend beyond the realm of automobiles. The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating a collision involving two commuter trains in a Los Angeles suburb that killed twenty-five people and injured well over a hundred more, but one of the safety violations that has been confirmed as a potential source of the collision is that the driver of one of the trains had sent dozens of text messages throughout the day, including one that was sent just twenty-two seconds before the crash. Federal investigators have said that all of the physical evidence indicates that the one of the trains failed to stop at a red light, leaving open the possibility that distracted driving may have been a potential source of the accident.
While Tennessee doesn’t have a plethora of public transit systems, many Tennessee cities have buses and trolleys that transport hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans per day. The sheer volume of people that make use of these systems, especially in the larger cities, makes it possible that a single act of negligent driving on behalf of those responsible for operating public transit vehicles could possibly injure or kill dozens or hundreds of individuals. The unfortunate truth, as the story above details, is that many of the individuals who are responsible for transporting the public do engage in distracted driving and participate in activities such as texting while driving.
It is important to remember that those who drive a vehicle owned by someone else for a living have a duty to use the road in a safe and reasonable manner just the same as any other driver. This duty may actually be heightened considering these drivers transport multiple passengers at a time and are supposed to be trained in operating their vehicle. Unfortunately, these drivers do not always drive safely. If the negligence of these drivers’ causes an accident, any victims would potentially be able to recover from the driver and the company, entity, or municipality that owns or operates the public transit service, meaning there will often be multiple defendants from which injured plaintiffs can recover.
