City: Piketon, Ohio

County: Pike County, Ohio  

Date: September 22, 2010

Type: Fatal Truck / Train Accident
 
The Ohio State Patrol has reported that a 56-year-old man Piketon man was killed when a Norfolk Southern Train struck his truck September 22. One of his passengers, a 30-year-old McDermott man, experienced serious head injuries and was airlifted to St. Mary’s Hospital for treatment. The third passenger fled the scene of the accident and has yet to be located by authorities.

We don't know exactly what happened in the above tragedy. In general, train impacts are very dangerous in that the mass of the train creates tremendous forces on the human body, even at relatively low speeds. This is because force of impact equals mass of vehicle times its acceleration.  With such a large mass, it does not take much acceleration, or change in velocity, to create tremendous force. The human body cannot handle these forces, and death and catastrophic injuries routinely occur. I always tell my clients and friends, don't trust that the warning signals work when you are dealing with trains. Don't bet your life on a signal working correctly. When dealing with a train track, turn down the radio, roll down the window, look and listen. It may just save your life. Trains move deceptively fast. Never attempt to outrun a train at a crossing, it can cost you your life. It is hard to judge speed with such  a large object that may block surrounding landmarks that normally could be used to judge speed. 

Our sincere condolences go out to the family of the man killed in the above tragedy.

Pike County, Ohio (population 27,695) had a total of 761 reported accidents in 2008, with 6 of those being fatal. 234 of the total reported crashes in 2008 were injury crashes (348 total injuries). Piketon, Ohio (population 1,907) had a total of 31 reported accidents in 2008.


If you've been seriously injured or have lost a loved one in a Piketon truck / car accident, call the Pike County auto accident and wrongful death attorneys / lawyers at Chester Law Group at 1-800-218-4243 or order your FREE BOOK entitled The Insider’s Guide to Handling Ohio Accident Claims at www.ChesterLaw.com.