In the Northeast alone there have been multiple deadly train derailments in just the last few years.

When passengers are injured or die in these accidents they (or their families) are bewildered.
How will medical bills or funeral expenses get paid? How do you even go about suing a railroad for compensation? Are there special rules? What court can you sue them in? Attorneys outside the railroad industry are sent scrambling to learn about damages caps or federal safety regulations.

Railroad lawyers know what facts to uncover to go after strict liability, what government-mandated documents exist to prove fault and what experts to hire to explain the railroad world to a jury.

The National Transportation Safety Board has been urging railroads - for years - to institute Positive Train Control (PTC) - speed controls on trains to prevent derailments and build safer railcars to protect passengers. But those changes cost money and the railroad continues - for decades - to trade passenger safety for better profit margins.