Beyond Lawyering

We believe that being a safety advocate is very much a part of our firm’s purpose, and efforts have been made by the firm’s mass disaster attorneys to not only represent their clients in getting them full and just compensation, but our attorneys have become advocates for train safety.

Our train safety advocacy work is best exemplified by our extensive work in the community specifically regarding the extreme risk in the push-pull passenger rail system.

Inspired by the families of those killed in the Glendale, California, Metrolink crash, and  passengers severely injured, we became deeply involved in working with the state legislature to get the law changed to ban the pushing of passenger trains, starting with the State of California.

Baum Hedlund Attorney and Clients Testify Before State Government on Train Safety

Baum Hedlund coordinated with the California Assembly Majority Leader in charge of the Assembly’s Special Committee on Passenger Rail Safety and scheduled three of our clients and one of our attorneys (who is also a mechanical engineer) to testify at the committee’s hearing on rail safety concerning the dangers in the pushing of trains, and also the improvements needed in passenger car crashworthiness.

The Baum Hedlund clients suggested to the committee, the many changes needed to make passenger trains safer. Some of their proposals included banning pushing of trains, installing automatic gates at all rail crossings, installing sensors, radar and/or cameras to warn of obstructions, train turnarounds, passenger car crashworthiness improvements, seat belts, better rail disaster training and alerting of passengers before a crash.

Senior Baum Hedlund partner, Paul J. Hedlund, attorney and mechanical engineer, also testified before the State Assembly hearing on California commuter rail safety as a result of the Metrolink derailment. He showed two independently produced train crash test videos exposing the vulnerability of cab cars. The videos stunned the Committee members when it revealed the cab car with shock absorbers suffered very little damage compared to the cab car without. Mr. Hedlund also discussed push versus pull in general terms and the inherent dangers in pushing passenger cars with a locomotive and why pulling passenger cars with a locomotive is safer.

In December of 2005, almost a year after the Metrolink derailment, and after months of public pressure, Metrolink finally announced that it would install shock absorbers on their trains.

Personal Meetings with State Assemblyman and a U.S. Representative

On several occasions our firm organized meetings for our clients to personally meet with the state assemblyman and his transportation staff spearheading the push-pull ban legislation. We also organized our clients to meet with the U.S. Representative for the district where the crash occurred, seeking his involvement in improving passenger rail safety in the state of California.

Baum Hedlund Organizes March on State Capitol to Rally Support for the Bill to Ban the Pushing of Passenger Trains

Baum Hedlund clients and the firm’s public relations director joined Assembly Majority Leader Dario Frommer (Glendale) at the Burbank airport for a press conference just before taking off for Sacramento.  After landing, the Baum Hedlund group spent the rest of that day and the next day lobbying 12 of the 13 senators who sit on the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee, to vote yes on the Assembly bill that would ban the pushing of trains.

Baum Hedlund Clients Testify Before the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee

Three Baum Hedlund Metrolink crash clients testified before the California Senate Transportation and Housing Committee in favor of the Assembly bill that, if passed, would ban the pushing of passengers in California and make passenger trains more safe.  Each one of these victims, a widow and two severely injured passengers, offered excellent testimony, and made it very clear that if their Metrolink train was being pulled that tragic morning, rather than being pushed, the injured would have walked away with much less severe, if any injuries, and no one would have died.


Our Firm Organized the One-year Metrolink Crash Memorial

We also planned, organized and funded what turned out to be an incredible memorial ceremony, honoring the 11 people who were killed in the derailment and the more than 200 who were injured.  Also honored, were the first responders on the scene of the crash.

Many of the victims and their families participated in the ceremony and officially thanked the first responders with plaques (the Costco property employees at the train derailment location and the Los Angeles and Glendale Fire Departments).

Two Los Angeles city councilmen accepted Baum Hedlund’s invitation to MC the event, and the Los Angeles Fire Department was gracious enough to provide a beautiful backdrop of two U.S. flags draped from extended ladders as well as provide the bagpipes and color guard. Hundreds of people attended the ceremony, including representatives from all the local media. One of the widow’s clergymen provided a prayer service and released 11 white doves in remembrance of those who died.

The families that attended truly appreciated having an opportunity to meet and officially thank the first responders and pay a wonderful tribute to their loved ones and the injured.

Other Safety Advocacy Work Done by Baum Hedlund Attorneys

Many of Baum Hedlund’s attorneys have spearheaded, and participated in, campaigns that have led to safety improvements.  Baum Hedlund attorneys have testified on at least eight occasions at state and federal levels regarding truck, train and drug safety and to a foreign government who invited a Baum Hedlund attorney to their country to testify about the risks of a certain U.S. manufactured medication which severely affected their people.
 
Baum Hedlund’s proactive attorneys have also:

  • Testified at a special State Senate Transportation Committee Hearing whose purpose was to probe events leading up to the fatal trucking accident, which killed our clients' son. A California state senator invited our firm to testify at a hearing investigating the Caltrans Transportation Permits Office, who issued a permit to a trucking company carrying a load two inches higher than the overpasses on that freeway. When the truck traveled under the overpass its large tank was ripped from the truck by the overpass and crushed the car traveling behind the truck, killing our clients' son.

  • Testified before a state seismic safety commission in order to improve earthquake proofing for building facades.

  • Testified before the U.S. FDA on three different occasions in order to get proper safety labels on certain drugs.

  • Testified before a foreign government to warn them of contaminated blood products being used in their country by hemophiliacs.

  • Met with members of the United States House and Senate regarding the risk of suicide in antidepressant drugs.

  • Assisted Congressional Investigators from two separate Committee investigations which resulted in two Congressional hearings at which pharmaceutical executives and FDA officials were interrogated and chastised for failing to protect the public health.

  • Helped obtain U.S. legislation to provide humanitarian aid to thousands of families affected by HIV-contaminated hemophilia medication.

  • Helped in a recall campaign of defective drain covers in spas and hot tubs so long-haired people would not drown by being caught in them.

  • Helped advance the amendment of an outdated 80-year-old federal aviation law called "The Death on the High Seas Act" which limited the amount of recovery available to victims of airline crashes, but now provides equitable treatment of those families.

  • Organized and funded a national campaign in all fifty states and Canada urging school bus owners, operators and purchasers to relocate gas tanks positioned next to the front doors, to an unexposed position inside the frame thus reducing the chance of, and allow for more exit routes in case of, a fire.