A few days ago I heard on the news about a subway crash in Washington DC. I did not pay much attention to the accident except for a brief pause when I heard of the many injuries and deaths; More bad news. Last night while on my Face Book page I was chatting with a good friend of mine who interned with me in Washington D.C. many years ago. It turns out she is still in the area working as an analyst for Congress and just by chance missed that redliner; Her colleagues who witnessed the crash where not that fortunate.
The accident happened this Monday during rush hour. It appears the Washington’s Metro Area Transit Authority (WMATA) was warned in 2006 by The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), after investigating another accident that injured 20 people in 2004, that the trains needed to be faced out or retrofitted. Reports state that around 70 people where injured and 9 people are dead.
The accident is said to be the deadliest accident of the history of the Metro train in Washington D.C. Thankfully the cars where coming towards Washington with less passengers in them instead of outgoing trains which are generally saturated with passengers leaving work. The trains where said to be going at full speed with no brakes heard being applied, followed by a loud crash. There was smoke and dust everywhere.
While my friend was not there to witness the crash, her colleague was. She was waiting for her friend to have dinner. She will never see her friend again. This got me thinking about the losses of life and all the injuries. Many of the injured will be able to sue the metroliner for negligence and get some of their losses restored, but what of the others who lost loved ones. Who can sue for wrongful death? Again my fingers started to do the walking on the internet looking to retrieve my answers.
Ordinarily if a person gets injured and damages are incurred such as loss wages, pain and suffering, loss of consortium etc. due to the negligence of another they are able to file what is knows as a negligence lawsuit. But what happens when the person who is injured dies? In the past, many ions ago there was no way to claim losses as it was believed that the claim died with the person. Today most states if not all have what is known as a wrongful death claim which is a claim meant to give some relief to the family for the damages caused by the loss of their loved one(s) as well as giving the wrongdoer the motivation to act cautiously and safe in the future, and deterring others from acting negligently. For the law to apply most states follow general principals. 1) there must be a death, 2) the death was caused in some way by the negligence of the defendant, 3) there was a surviving beneficiary such as a spouse or child, sometimes dependents, varies by state, and 4) monetary damages have resulted directly from the lose of the loved one.
A wrongful death claim can never bring your loved one back, but it can help get you through the storm. The key to recovery may lie in choosing the right attorney. My friend is now afraid to board the metroliners and has been driving to work, which is hell in the D.C. area. Who is going to make her whole again? She was not even a witness to the accident nor did she lose anyone. Boyfriends, girlfriends, and others will never get anything because they generally do not fit within the parameters of the law. We all suffer a lose when others act negligently; even though I thought that Monday while watching the news that it was a distant incident, it to has touched my life, for now I feel a little of the pain my friend holds and long to make her feel secure again.