NBC New York reported that "150 people were stranded on a Long Island Rail Road train for more than five hours by a combination of snow drifts, icing, traffic problems, and equipment failure due to weather."
While the snowstorm last week was a mighty blizzard, does that mean that a train should be that delayed? Could anyone be held accountable for such a huge waste of time or is it out of everyone's hands?
Well, in this case, since no one was injured, a personal injury case might be a waste of time as well. If, however, someone had a panic attack during the long wait or the train had jolted on the tracks causing the people inside to get bumped and bruised, then there could be a personal injury case. Or if the amount of time in the cold train car had contributed to the person getting an illness, that might be an injury as well. But would a New York personal injury attorney stand a chance against Mother Nature?
The most common way for a person to be found at fault in something that has to do with weather conditions would be if the person's negligence combined with the dangerous conditions.
In a recent case, it was argued if a city could be held accountable for a puddle. A personal injury attorney could argue that if the puddle was there for a long enough period of time and the city knew about the hazard but chose not to fix it, then they might be found at fault (at least partially). However, if the puddle was just made and someone slipped and fell into it, is it logical to blame the city for that?
For a snowstorm to have delayed a train is just something that happens, but for the train to have encountered three different problems may not be all to blame on the weather.
If the maintenance on the train was being neglected, that might have caused the train to be more susceptible to the weather conditions. If it was discovered that a repair person or the engineer had failed to do his job properly and that caused the train to be delayed for a portion of the five hours, then he might be found at fault for that amount of time that was lost because of his negligence.
Even though it may have been inconvenient, it is better to have arrived late than not at all.
If you have a tricky personal injury case that involves a combination of the weather and someone else at fault, you can contact a New York personal injury attorney. Your lawyer can make sure that the amount of blame is put on the deserving parties.
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