Menu
SCHEDULE A FREE CONSULTATION
Federal crossing reports show that from 2021 through 2025, crashes between trains and tractor-trailers in Louisiana injured 54 people. Only 17 were in the trucks. Twenty-nine were train crew members, and eight were train passengers.
A crew member's claim against the railroad runs under FELA, a federal law for railroad workers. The others claim under Louisiana law. It has a shorter deadline and, for crashes on or after January 1, 2026, a fault rule that can erase the claim.
Brandt & Sherman, a Lafayette injury firm with more than 50 years of combined experience, handles train crash and railroad crossing injury claims across Acadiana. Which law covers you comes first.
Who employed you decides which law covers your injury, how long you have to file, and how your own fault is counted. The paycheck usually settles it.
| If you were | Your claim runs under | Deadline to file | Your own fault (51% bar: crashes on or after January 1, 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| An employee of a railroad that carries freight or passengers for the public | FELA, against the railroad | 3 years | Reduces the award; no percentage bars it, but the railroad must have been at least partly negligent |
| A driver, pedestrian or cyclist hit at a crossing | Louisiana law, limited by federal preemption, plus workers' comp if you were working | 2 years. Comp: generally 1 year from the accident or the last payment | 51% or more bars recovery. Comp does not depend on fault |
| A train passenger | Louisiana law | 2 years | 51% or more bars recovery |
| A contractor's employee on railroad property, or a rail crew employed by a plant or private switching contractor | Louisiana workers' comp, plus a possible claim against a railroad or other party at fault (FELA instead, if the railroad controlled how you did the work) | Comp: generally 1 year from the accident or the last payment. Other claim: 2 years | Comp does not depend on fault. 51% or more bars the other claim |
A railroad employee hurt by a truck or car driver may also have a Louisiana-law claim against that driver. The two-year deadline applies. So does the 51% bar for crashes on or after January 1, 2026.
Louisiana's rules turn on dates. The two-year deadline covers claims arising after July 1, 2024. Earlier claims keep one year. The 51% bar covers causes of action arising on or after January 1, 2026.
Contractors often guess wrong. A contractor's employee is covered by FELA only if the railroad controlled, or had the right to control, how the employee physically did the work, not just the result (Kelley v. Southern Pacific, 1974). Otherwise it is a workplace accident claim. That means Louisiana workers' compensation plus a possible negligence claim against the railroad. Louisiana gives a principal that qualifies as a statutory employer the same tort immunity your direct employer has. Read the contract first. Railcar and rail-spur injuries inside a plant are covered on our industrial accident page.
Train passengers and pedestrians struck at crossings can claim against anyone whose fault caused the crash. That can include the railroad. It can include a driver stuck on the tracks.
If you work for a railroad that hauls freight or passengers for the public (a common carrier), the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA) lets you sue it for negligence, and Louisiana workers' compensation does not apply to you (La. R.S. 23:1035.2). Rail crews employed by a plant or a private switching contractor may not be covered by FELA, and their comp deadline is generally one year. FELA has no benefit schedule. Damages are set by settlement or by a judge or jury, and they can include pain and suffering. For an illness from workplace exposure, FELA's three years run from when the illness shows itself (Urie v. Thompson, 1949).
Railroads reported 327 on-duty injuries and illnesses among their employees in Louisiana from 2021 through 2025, 13 in Lafayette Parish. Statewide, 48 of the 327 were coded as highway-rail crossing collisions.
A railroad is liable for an injury "resulting in whole or in part" from its negligence (45 U.S.C. 51). Juries can be told it is enough that its negligence "played a part," "no matter how small" (CSX Transportation v. McBride, 2011). You still have to prove negligence.
Your own fault reduces FELA damages in proportion to your share. No percentage bars you. If a railroad's violation of a law meant to protect railroad workers contributed to the injury, your fault reduces nothing, and Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) safety regulations count as such laws (45 U.S.C. 53 and 54a).
The exception can be lost at trial. In 2025 Louisiana's Second Circuit Court of Appeal cut a Shreveport locomotive shop electrician's FELA award of about $5.38 million by his 20% share of fault (Waller v. Kansas City Southern Railway, La. App. 2 Cir. 2025). The jury found the railroad broke a crane training standard that OSHA adopts. But both sides had agreed to keep the fault exception from the jury, and the court held the trial judge could not use it to undo the jury's fault split after the verdict. The court did not decide whether that standard counts as a worker-safety law under FELA.
Equipment defects go further. Under the Safety Appliance Act and the Locomotive Inspection Act, the railroad is liable for an injury caused by a defective coupler, hand brake, grab iron or locomotive part, even if it can show it was careful.
A railroad may not retaliate against you for reporting a work injury in good faith, or discipline you for asking for medical treatment (49 U.S.C. 20109). Following your doctor's orders is protected too. A railroad may still hold you out of work under FRA medical fitness standards, or under its own standards where FRA has none. A retaliation complaint must be filed with the U.S. Department of Labor within 180 days of the retaliation. Relief can include reinstatement, back pay and up to $250,000 in punitive damages.
Railroaders often hear that calling a lawyer will cost them their job. The report and the treatment, the steps that come first, are protected. Witnesses can talk. Disciplining an employee for voluntarily telling an injured coworker what happened is a federal crime.
The Railroad Retirement Board is entitled to repayment, from a FELA recovery or a recovery from anyone else such as a driver, for sickness benefits it paid you for the injury (45 U.S.C. 362(o)). Settlement math has to include it.
In a crossing crash, the railroad's main argument is that the driver broke Louisiana's crossing law. Expect it. The rest of the case looks like a car accident claim with federal rules on top. A truck adds the trucking company and its insurer, as in any truck accident claim.
Louisiana drivers must stop 15 to 50 feet from the nearest rail when signals warn, a gate is down, a flagman signals, a stop sign is posted, a train within about 900 feet sounds its horn and is an immediate hazard, or a train is plainly visible and close (La. R.S. 32:171). Stopping on a crossing is illegal. At a crossbucks-only crossing, a collision after passing the crossbuck is prima facie evidence that the driver failed to yield. The crash itself proves that point unless your side shows otherwise. About 43% of Louisiana's 2,742 open public street-level crossings have no lights or gates, only signs or no warning device at all, per FRA's October 2026 inventory.
In 109 of Louisiana's 415 crossing incidents from 2021 through 2025, about 26%, the vehicle or other highway user had stopped on the crossing when struck. In 41, a lowered gate was bypassed.
Fault can now end a claim. For crashes on or after January 1, 2026, a person found 51% or more at fault recovers nothing, and a smaller share reduces the award (La. C.C. art. 2323). Moving a driver from 49% to 51% is worth the whole claim to a railroad. Earlier crashes keep the old rule, where fault only reduces the award. When the horn started and whether the signals worked go into those percentages.
In 2026 the Louisiana Supreme Court reviewed an $8,307,050 judgment for a garbage truck driver whose truck was hit by a train at a Baldwin crossing in St. Mary Parish. It raised his share of fault from 15% to 75% and cut the railroad's to 25% (Thomas v. BNSF Railway, La. 2026). That was a loss for him. His 2016 crash predated the 51% bar, which a concurring justice wrote would change the result.
Federal law blocks a claim that a crossing's warning devices were inadequate when federal highway money paid for them and they were installed and operating (Norfolk Southern Railway v. Shanklin, 2000). That reaches crossbucks too.
Federal law still allows claims that a railroad broke a federal safety rule, its own rule written under one, or a state rule that federal law allows to stay in force (49 U.S.C. 20106(b)). Ask early who paid for the signs.
Preemption takes proof. In 2016 Louisiana's Third Circuit Court of Appeal, which hears Lafayette appeals, affirmed a judgment against the state transportation department over a 17-year-old killed at a Vinton crossing with no lights or gates. The department's share of general damages was capped by law at $500,000. The record held no admissible evidence of preemption, so the state's defense failed (Renfro v. Burlington Northern Santa Fe, La. App. 3 Cir. 2016). The railroad was not a defendant at trial.
Lafayette Parish has 57 open public crossings at street level, and 47 have gates, according to FRA's October 2026 inventory. Eight have only passive signs. Three of those, on Andres Road in Scott, Hollier Road in Duson and Lakeview Drive in Broussard, are crossbucks-only crossings on track that carries freight and passenger trains, with a timetable speed of up to 70 mph. From 2021 through 2025, FRA recorded 12 crossing incidents in the parish, with no deaths and 9 people injured.
The line slows downtown. From Spring Street to South Loop Street, the BNSF main line, also used by Amtrak and Union Pacific, has a 25 mph timetable limit and 17 public street-level crossings in about 2.6 miles of track. At the line's other public street-level crossings in the parish, the limit is 60 to 70 mph. FRA recorded four incidents at the 17 downtown crossings from 2016 through 2025, injuring five people. In three, a pedestrian or driver went around or through lowered gates.
Amtrak's Sunset Limited stops at the Rosa Parks Transportation Center, 100 Lee Avenue, where Amtrak counted 5,179 passengers getting on or off in fiscal 2025. Ownership is split. Amtrak lists the City of Lafayette as owner of the station building and parking lot, and BNSF Railway as owner of the platform and track.
A train running faster than 30 mph must carry an event recorder that logs speed and braking, and newer locomotives also log horn use. Federal rules only require it to hold the most recent 48 hours of operation (49 CFR 229.135). After a reportable accident the railroad must preserve the data. The duty runs to FRA. It ends after one year unless federal investigators ask in writing.
Every crossing incident must be reported to FRA, but no part of a railroad's accident report may be used "in a civil action for damages" (49 U.S.C. 20903). The report shows where to look.
A Louisiana wrongful death claim runs one year from the death or two years from the injury, whichever is longer. Louisiana's classes run spouse and children, then parents, then siblings, then grandparents. Each class shuts out the next.
FELA changes who comes after parents. A railroad worker's FELA death claim benefits the spouse and children, then parents, then next of kin who depended on the worker, and it carries FELA's three-year deadline.
Yes, if someone else was at fault. Employees of railroads that carry freight or passengers for the public sue under FELA, with three years. Everyone else, including a railroad employee suing a driver, has two years to sue under Louisiana law for claims arising after July 1, 2024. Anyone hurt on the job outside FELA also generally has one year from the accident or last payment to file for Louisiana workers' comp. Under Louisiana law, for causes of action arising on or after January 1, 2026, 51% or more fault bars recovery and a smaller share reduces it. A judge or jury has wide discretion over pain and suffering (Duncan v. Kansas City Southern Railway, La. 2000).
A railroad accident lawyer handles train injury claims: crossing crashes, passenger injuries and pedestrian strikes. For anyone who does not work for the railroad, those claims run under Louisiana law. A FELA lawyer represents railroad employees hurt on the job under the Federal Employers' Liability Act. They sue the railroad for negligence. Brandt & Sherman handles both.
No. FELA is a negligence lawsuit against the railroad with no benefit schedule, and damages can include pain and suffering. Louisiana workers' compensation does not apply to a railroad employee under FELA. You must prove the railroad's negligence played a part, however small, unless a defective coupler, hand brake, grab iron or locomotive part caused the injury.
Employees of railroads that carry freight or passengers for the public have three years under FELA to sue the railroad. Drivers, passengers and pedestrians, and a railroad employee suing a driver who caused the crash, have two years under Louisiana law for claims arising after July 1, 2024. Anyone hurt on the job outside FELA generally has one year from the accident or last payment to file for Louisiana workers' comp. Railroad rules may also require reporting an injury right away. Follow that work rule too.
Not before you talk to a lawyer. Report the injury as your railroad's rules require, and get medical care, but a recorded statement to a claim agent is a separate step. What you say in it can be used to argue your share of fault. Fault reduces a FELA award, and for crashes on or after January 1, 2026, the 51% bar can end a driver's claim.
Generally yes, at public crossings. Exceptions include quiet zones, gated crossings where a wayside horn sounds instead (49 CFR 222.59), and a train going 15 mph or less while a crew member or flagger flags the crossing (49 CFR 222.33). The horn generally must start 15 to 20 seconds before the train enters (49 CFR 222.21). A train going faster than 60 mph starts no more than a quarter mile out, even if that gives less than 15 seconds. Federal law still allows claims over a late or missing horn.
The railroad is the Goliath here. It writes the federal accident report, which cannot be used in your injury lawsuit, and it holds the event recorder data. Get a preservation letter out early, asking it to keep that data and the dispatch, signal and crossing maintenance records.
Call (337) 800-4000 or contact us online. The consultation is free, and there is no attorney fee unless we win. Clients may be responsible for costs and expenses.
Past results are not a guarantee of future success. Results may vary.
SEE MORE CASE RESULTS
© 2025 Brandt & Sherman Injury Lawyers | All Rights Reserved | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy
