Blue Line Becoming California’s Deadliest Rail Transit after Series of Train Accidents

It is just the third quarter of the year, but the recorded train accidents involving Metro Blue Line has already reached 22, accounting for six deaths. It was said to be a record-breaking figure in its 22-year history.

Metro Blue Line started its operation in 1990, extending service from Long Beach to Downtown Los Angeles to 26 million riders. It is actually the country’s first light-rail line. However, statistics revealed that in a year, the average number of train accidents reaches 50.9 during its first twelve months of operation.

Consequently, Blue Line was in fact, referred to as the deadliest rail transit route in 1999 for having 10 fatalities and some 40 injured from the 50 train accidents that occurred that year. Most of the accidents involved other vehicles crossing the streets and some who committed suicide. 

Over the next decade until last present, the rail transit has taken several measures to improve safety, which indeed made a significant decline in the number of rail transit accidents in previous years. In fact, from 2008 to 2011, the incidences of train accidents have significantly dropped. Unfortunately, things have changed this year, according to Blue Line’s operator board member Zev Yaroslavsky.

Yaroslavsky said that if the numbers generated in the previous months of this current year are any indication, by the end of the year, there could be more fatalities than any other year in Blue Line’s history.

Most often, people do not realize that train accidents are not impossible. Nevertheless, in the event that a train mishap indeed happened, victims should carefully figure out their next move. They should take note that every victim of such personal injury has the legal rights to demand due compensation and recovery of damages resulting from the negligence of rail transit owners or operators, reminded a Los Angeles personal injury attorney.