Jones was part of a film crew who was on its first day of shooting Gregg Allman’s biographical “Midnight Rider” In Georgia in February 2014. The crew had set up a bed and other props on an active railroad bridge near Jesup, Ga., when a CSX train approached the trestle. All film crew members escaped except for Jones.
A jury in civil trial determined that the railroad shared blame in Jones’ death because two trains that had previously passed through the area failed to inform the train dispatchers of the film crew’s presence.
According to Jones’ parents testimony, CSX also has a policy in place where train crews are expected to report trespassers on or near the right-of-way. According to an attorney representing Jones’ family, the train did not go into emergency until after it had struck a hospital bed the filmmakers had staged across the tracks.
CSX Transportation officials say they disagree with the jury’s conclusion.
“CSX is deeply sympathetic to the terrible loss suffered by the family of Ms. Sarah Jones, but respectfully disagrees with the conclusions reached by the jury today,” said CSX spokesperson Rob Doolittle in a prepared statement on Monday.
Attorneys representing the railroad say they had been sent two emails to production managers denying them permission to record on the railroad bridge.
According to the AP story, three of Jones’ colleagues testified that managers never informed them they were trespassing on railroad property.
Randall Miller, the film’s director, ended up serving a year in jail after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespassing.
Jones’ family had also sued the film’s production manager and several other defendants. All of them settled except for CSX.
The jury concluded that Jones’ life was valued at $11.2 million. CSX, the only defendant on trial, is responsible for 35 percent of that determination and will be required to pay $3.9 million.
Hogwash. CSX ought to fight this one tooth and nail.
Our typically broken Justice system and Jury’s that can’t get it right. It is not CSX’s fault
This is idiotic. Another case of a jury feeling sorry for someone who paid the price for his own stupidity. After all, the big bad train killed that poor innocent man. Hopefully this will be reduced on appeal, or overturned. This is not an uncommon outcome in these cases, though you often hear little or nothing about the result of the appeal.
This judicial decision is just terrible. It’s bad enough that it’s not really the railroad’s fault but much worse is the message it sends: It’s basically O.K. to trespass on the railway. I hope CSX appeals this and is able to get it overturned.
I would have to agree with CSX based on both sides of the story…….This is private property and CSX did not give permission to shoot on their bridge.
I fail to see why CSX must pay for the death of someone trespassing on their property, especially after the company was told twice they could not film on the property but filmed anyway. How is CSX responsible in anyway for someone else’s stupidity.
Well, my life is worth $12M so I say CSX needs to appeal this unjust and, frankly, ridiculous decision. . .especially since the film director was convicted and served a year’s time, leaving the matter clearly the fault of the filmmaker(s)–not CSX.
In the words of comedian Ron White, you can’t fix stupid. However, it’s apparent that stupidity reaps rewards. Will common sense ever stand its ground in a trial by jury? 3 points come to mind that contradict the plaintiffs case.
First, CSX established evidence that two emails were sent to the production managers denying access to RR property. Colleagues of Ms. Jones stated under oath that no production manager notified them of trespassing violations. Right there, production managers are liable for preventing production crew from going onto RR property w/o proper authorization.
Second, the fact that two trains passed earlier should have registered inside the brains of the production crew that this wasn’t a bright idea given the fact that the bridge is part of an active ROW where trains can show up anytime. So it’s the policy of CSX to report trespassers on or near RR property. Perhaps the crew on those two trains that passed earlier determined that the locale of the production crew showed no signs of eminent danger.
Finally, the attorney for the plantiff stated the Engineer/Conductor didn’t apply the emergency brakes until after it hit the bed on the bridge. Was the consist of the train on a curve at the point of impact? If so, then the train crew made the right call for fear of derailing the train. Here’s my question to the attorney: are you trying to rewrite the Laws of physics?
I guess the plaintiffs should be happy that the jury rode with emotions over the facts. However, if we as a civilized society continue to reward stupidity, then be prepared to deal with its failures.
this seems awfully foolish. But guess this falls into the same category as that of a thief who is injured while breaking and entering into a home, then sues the homeowner and wins. I listen to the radio feed for Rochelle Ill and have noted that train crews report tresspassers to the dispatcher. Not the company’s resonsiblitly to intercept criminals, but I wonder if they will now report this to dispatcher more often, and local LE gets more calls to chase trespassers. Finally, railfans are the best passive security observers, as long as we do this from public property. Just my thots….
I agree that this is a totally wrong decision. But a trial by peers is English law. In the united States a person (company) has a right to a fair and impartial jury trial.
Gerald, when would a railcar be on public property? I’m just trying to understand when that would happen and I am drawing a blank.
Note the railfan trespassing picture on the August 2017 cover of Trains Magazine. Wonder if they all got cited for trespassing. Reminds me of a very nice Trains advertising insert with a father and young son walking hand-in-hand…down shiny railroad tracks.
This will definitely have an effect on railfans. I would suggest that any of you planning to photograph CSX, or any other trains, make damn sure you aren’t even one inch onto the ROW from here on. They are going to be out for heads and will probably be prosecuting any trespass case to make examples.
Just like the rest of the Justice System, the concept of Trial by Peer is vastly broken. The facts and laws presented in a case are irrelevant, as juries make a decision based on personal bias, emotion, herd mentality, and are blinded by the possibility of sticking it to a company that they percieve has an endless supply of cash. Juries routinely and wrongly ruin reputations and destroy lives of both individuals and companies in order to satisfy nothing more than a sense of entitlment and power – piss on the facts, who needs em’. I would rather have my fate decided by the likes of Watson or even Hal than to have a bunch of yahoos with an agenda hearing my case.
As for CSX, they should bury this case under mountains of paperwork, lawyers, and appeals until either they or the prosecutors go bankrupt. Apparently, law doesn’t matter, and neither does NO (twice) in this case. There is no possible logical explanation for this frivilous award.
Switching soap boxes, everyone has a cross to bear. Jim Norton hate graffiti, and I hate Amtrak. And so it goes.
How many of you have avoided jury duty, leaving these other people to serve and come to what seems to us, inane decisions? And yes, I have served on a jury and been ready to serve again had there been a case.
Some officials believe that a person should be compensated if THEY think it is fair for the person injured, even the injury was the result of the person’s STUPIDITY!! Remember that, when you pay your insurance!!!
The decision was definitely an unjust decision. In denying permission to occupy the property, CSX was protecting itself.
This is a huge crock of crap, right up there with the hot coffee case. They trespassed, PERIOD! I’m sorry someone died, but it ISN’T the RR fault. They were warned, they were aware they were doing something illegal and dangerous. Civil cases have their place, but their must be some points of law to affect the verdict. I agree with “almost” all of the posts on this. Countersue.
Stupid does pay
Sympathetic jurors often side with plaintiffs in such cases. Remember the McDonald’s coffee case? That particular award was greatly reduced in appellate court, as this will likely be.
This is completely absurd. They were trespassing on an active ROW. In other words they were being stupid. If anyone should be sued it’s the production company but they don’t have any money, CSX does.
It seems like there are too many court cases where the jury awards damages because they feel sorry for someone, even if there is no basis on law for the award. First, CSX denied the film company’s request in writing. It is immaterial if the film company did not pass that information on to the crew. Second, as far as I could tell from the coverage, the plaintiffs did not present evidence that the earlier CSX crews saw the members of the film company. In addition, even if the crews saw people nearby, they would not know who they were and whether they be trespassing. Train crews would not be in the chain of communication for the denial of rights to the track.
CSX will have to pay nothing until all appeals are exhausted, and I’m pretty sure they’ll appeal this decision. As for Mr. Norton’s comments, he obviously lives in a cave and doesn’t know that almost all tagging is done from public property or NON-railroad private property(as I’ve stated every time he brings up the subject, I prefer to deal in facts and not fantasy, my statement is based on proven facts).
The prosecuting attorney could make the case that CSX does little to thwart trespassing as every boxcar on the property is currently vandalized by an army of trespassers. “Cherry picking” trespassers is a lose-lose situation.
The train crew should sue the film company for emotional trauma.
This is about as ridiculous as me walking into someone’s back yard stepping on a rack hurting myself and then suing them and winning. I’m no fan of E HUNTER but for once his company is getting SCREWED in this case. Court system working as intended lol