Richard N. Shapiro (Rick) is a personal injury trial attorney, American inventor, and international award-winning fiction author. One of his co-authored legal treatises was published in the American Jurisprudence “Trials” Law Encyclopedia.
A collision between a Union Pacific freight train and a tractor-trailer in Mer Rouge, Louisiana (LA), on October 5, 2014, left two rail crew members critically injured. The conductor needed to be flown by helicopter to shreveport, more than an hour away, to have his…
Union Pacific on September 26, 2014, received an order from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration to reinstate and pay punitive damages to a rail yard worker it had illegally suspended for reporting safety problems. In announcing its ruling in the whistleblower case, the…
Recognizing that railroad maintenance workers require more protection from on-the-job accidents that cause serious injuries and deaths, federal regulators on September 24, 2014, issued a report calling for better supervisory practices and greater coordination of national rules regarding unacceptable
A significant victory for public and workplace safety occurred on Sept. 10, 2014, when the lead union representing freight railroad conductors and ground crew members rejected a proposed revised work agreement with Burlington Northern Santa Fe to use one-person crews on more than half of…
An old, more-sad-than-funny joke runs, “I didn’t get rich by writing a lot of checks.” My decades of work on behalf of railroad employees who developed disabling and fatal lung diseases after working with and around asbestos have nearly convinced me that rail corporations ranging…
The family of a Union Pacific carman who died from surgical complications after severely breaking his leg in a workplace accident has won an appeal to hold the railroad accountable for failing to fix a longstanding safety risk at one of its rail yards. The…
New research by Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization (HRTPO) combed over data to come up with different ways to evaluate Hampton Roads’ most accident-prone intersections and freeways. The analysis evaluated the potential for reducing the number of accidents at hundreds of locations whi
Many people aren’t aware of a supplementary insurance coverage known as “medical expense coverage”, or Med Pay, and how this coverage can be a huge help to you and your loved ones following a serious car accident. Med Pay coverage is not required in every state, and…
Yes. Distracted driving is the leading cause of car and truck accidents that result in injuries and deaths. Everything from texting with a smartphone to applying makeup and using an electric shaver leads to dozens of serious accidents each day in North Carolina (NC). Recognizing…
If a picture is worth a thousand words, this one-and-a-half minute commercial by car manufacturer Volkswagen is worth a million. The ad, called “Eyes on the Road”, left me speechless and is hands down the most effective warning against texting-and-driving I have ever seen. Volkswagen…
Though large companies like Norfolk Southern must manage the railways they own all along the east coast, they do not own the vast majority of the tank-car fleet that travels along their rails. This includes tanker cars carrying crude oil, the safety of which has…
There is sad news for fans of the “Survivor” television series. Caleb Bankston a contestant on the show in 2013 was crushed between two railroad cars. He was an engineer for the Alabama Warrior Railway. While checking on something between two cars, the train derailed…
