Injured by Falling Baggage?

Stowing your baggage securely when traveling on a train is never easy, but it is your responsibility to take care of it, just as it is the train company’s responsibility to provide adequate facilities for you to do so. Sometimes, especially when trains stop abruptly, falling baggage can cause serious injury. Who is to blame for this? A railraod accident lawyer can help you to find out.

Most train companies will provide advice in their customer contract regarding the recommended limits on baggage you may travel with. Even if you don’t get a copy of this contract when you buy your ticket, you are considered to be a party to it, and you should always receive a copy upon request.

If the quantity of baggage you are carrying exceeds this amount, you are liable for any damage it causes. The equivalent is true if you are carrying any listed inappropriate items. The rules may also stipulate that certain types of baggage have to be stowed in the racks at the ends of the carriages rather than in the spaces above the seats.

If you have complied with these instructions and have stowed your baggage according to the advice given, it is not legally your fault if your baggage falls and injures somebody. Even if your own baggage falls on you, you are within your rights to make a complaint; and if somebody else’s properly stowed baggage falls and injures you, you should be suing not the baggage owner but the train company.

A railraod accident lawyer can help you to get all this clear and can assist you with the formal business of making a claim, taking into account the nature of the risk to which you were exposed and the scale of the resulting injuries.

Baggage compartments are one of those sections of trains which is routinely under-maintained. The injury risk this represents can be serious. Don’t let them get away with it.