Serious injuries caused by unsafe stations, platforms, and transit facilities.

Passengers and visitors can suffer serious injuries when train stations, platforms, walkways, stairs, escalators, elevators, and boarding areas are unsafe. Falls, platform-edge incidents, equipment failures, assaults, and other hazards can cause traumatic brain injuries, spinal injuries, fractures, crush injuries, permanent disability, or death. Determining why the injury occurred may require examining property conditions, maintenance records, surveillance video, inspection history, station design, security measures, and the companies responsible for maintaining the property. The central question is whether a dangerous condition or preventable safety failure contributed to the harm.

Were You Injured at a Station or Platform While Working for a Railroad?

Railroad employees injured on platforms, walkways, stations, yards, customer property, or other work locations may have rights under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA). Visit McEldrew Purtell’s dedicated railroad injury website for information about railroad falls, unsafe walking surfaces, workplace injuries, and FELA claims.

Station & Platform Hazards That Can Cause Serious Injuries

On paper, railroads and transit agencies have detailed rules and maintenance plans for stations and platforms. In practice, serious injuries often trace back to simple, preventable conditions:

• Slips, Trips & Falls: Wet or icy platforms, snow and ice, spills, leaking roofs or pipes, cracked pavement, broken tiles, uneven walking surfaces, and debris can create dangerous conditions in areas used by passengers and visitors.
• Unsafe Platform Edges: Poorly marked edges, damaged platform surfaces, inadequate barriers, crowding, and other conditions near active tracks can increase the risk of falls or contact with moving trains.
• Stairs, Escalators & Elevators: Broken steps, missing handrails, malfunctioning escalators, misleveling elevators, inadequate maintenance, and poorly lit stairways can cause serious falls and entrapment injuries.
• Falling Objects & Overhead Hazards: Loose ceiling materials, signage, fixtures, construction materials, ice, or other objects can fall onto passengers or people moving through a station.
• Vehicle & Pedestrian Conflicts: Station entrances, parking areas, drop-off zones, bus areas, and access roads can become dangerous when traffic patterns, barriers, markings, or pedestrian routes are poorly designed or maintained.
• Inadequate Lighting & Visibility: Poor lighting can make platform edges, steps, uneven surfaces, obstacles, and other hazards harder to see.
• Security Failures & Assaults: In some circumstances, inadequate lighting, broken access controls, malfunctioning cameras, inadequate security measures, or a history of prior incidents may become relevant after an assault or other violent event.

Who May Be Responsible for a Station or Platform Injury?

Depending on where and how the injury occurred, potentially responsible parties may include:

• Railroads and transit agencies responsible for operating or maintaining the station or platform
• Station and property owners responsible for the premises
• Maintenance and janitorial contractors responsible for cleaning, snow and ice removal, repairs, or inspections
• Elevator and escalator companies responsible for inspection, service, or repair
• Construction contractors performing work in or around the station
• Security companies responsible for patrols, monitoring, or access control
• Equipment manufacturers when a defective escalator, elevator, door, barrier, or other product contributed
• Other businesses or public entities that controlled the location or condition involved

Responsibility depends on who owned, operated, maintained, repaired, or controlled the part of the station involved. In some cases, several companies or public entities may need to be investigated before it is clear who was responsible for the condition that caused the injury.