Train Derailment Crushes Bridge and Illinois Couple

 Posted on July 17, 2012 in Personal Injury

On July 4^th, a huge freight train hauling coal derailed by the Northbrook and Glenview border as reported by the chtribune. The weight on the bridge overpass collapsed the train over Shermer Road. The train was taking coal from a mine in eastern Wyoming to a utility plant in Wisconsin. Yet it wasn't able to make its destination until much later. The train consisted of three locomotive engines driving 138 cars. There were only two people, an engineer and a conductor, on the train at the time it crashed but were uninjured. Union Pacific Spokesman Mark Davis said that almost a third of the train had passed the bridge at the time of the accident. A total of 31 train cars derailed on the 86-foot-long bridge. Initially, the cleanup crews thought The teams first found a car bumper. Then they uncovered bodies in a Lexus who they later identified as Burton and Zorine Lindner. They were preparing to spend an Independence Day without their family and were just taking a leisurely drive possibly to the parade that was happening across town. Their day was full of possibilities of fun until train cars, coal, and a bridge fell on top of their car. that the mess was going to take months to clean up and the track wouldn't be operational for at least a week. That was before they started finding car parts underneath the bridge. The family that Burton and Zorine left behind is bringing a personal injury suit against Union Pacific. They are claiming that it was not the heat coupled with the weight of the cars as originally supposed by investigators (temperature that day were over 100 degrees and each train car weighed between 75 to 85 tons). "I don't care how hot it was, trains aren't supposed to fly off the tracks and crush innocent people," said the Linders' friend, attorney Michael LaMonica. He also noted that a derailment occurred at the same spot in 2009, stating that "two times in three years it's happened." The Lindner family is claiming that Union Pacific has been negligent in the inspection and maintenance of the train tracks. Car accidents can have devastating effects on families such as the wrongful deaths of the Lindners. Especially when they occur on holidays such as the Fourth of July, a day normally associated with family fun. Fatal accidents are difficult to manage without the help of a skilled personal injury lawyer in DuPage County, IL. If you have experienced a difficult loss, please do not waste a day without seeking the help that you need.