A collision with a train is nothing like an ordinary fender bender. A single locomotive can weigh hundreds of tons and needs more than a mile to stop, so even a low-speed impact at a crossing tends to produce catastrophic or fatal injuries. If you or someone in your family was hurt at a rail crossing in West Palm Beach, you are probably staring at large medical bills, lost income, and a claim that pulls in more than one potential defendant. The lawyer you hire needs to understand both the injuries and the way the insurers behind these claims actually operate.
Elstein Legal handles serious injury and wrongful death cases across West Palm Beach and Palm Beach County. Attorney Brian Elstein represents injured people and the families of those killed in crossing collisions, and he handles every case personally rather than passing it to a junior associate.
Why Choose Elstein Legal for a Train Accident Case
Before Brian Elstein opened his own practice, he worked the other side of the aisle. He defended and valued injury claims for insurance carriers, which means he learned firsthand how they investigate a wreck, what they look for to knock down a payout, and where a claim is at its strongest. He now puts that knowledge to work for the people insurers used to pay him to fight. You can read more about his background on attorney Brian Elstein’s page.
That single fact separates this firm from most plaintiff-only shops in Palm Beach County. Here is what it means for your case:
- A former insurance-defense attorney in your corner. Brian knows how carriers and railroads build a defense to a crossing claim, so he can anticipate it and get ahead of it.
- Hands-on, solo representation. Your case is worked by Brian himself. You are not handed off to a rotating cast of paralegals.
- No fees unless we win. The firm works on contingency. You owe nothing unless there is a recovery in your case.
- Available around the clock. Brian takes calls 24/7, including nights and weekends, because a serious crash does not wait for business hours.
- Millions recovered. Elstein Legal has recovered millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements for injured Floridians and their families.
What To Do After a Train or Crossing Crash in West Palm Beach
The hours after a rail collision are chaotic, and what you do in them can shape the whole claim. A short, practical checklist:
- Get medical care right away. Rail-impact injuries are often internal and can worsen for days. A prompt evaluation protects your health and creates the medical record your claim will rest on.
- Report the collision and let the scene be documented. Rail crossings are covered by signals, gates, and often cameras. That evidence can disappear or be overwritten quickly, so it needs to be preserved early.
- Say little to any insurer or railroad representative. Adjusters may reach out within days. Politely decline to give a recorded statement until you have talked to a lawyer, because early words get used to shift blame onto you.
- Keep everything. Hold on to photos, medical paperwork, the crash or incident report, and the contact information for any witness who saw what happened.
- Call a West Palm Beach train accident lawyer. The sooner counsel is involved, the sooner the corridor evidence, signal-maintenance records, and event-recorder data can be requested before they are lost.
Common Injuries in a Train or Crossing Collision
The physics of a train impact rarely leave minor injuries behind. A train transfers enormous force, and a person on foot or in a car has almost nothing to absorb it, so the harm tends to be severe and permanent. Cases along this corridor commonly involve:
- Traumatic brain injury and skull fractures
- Spinal cord damage, including partial or complete paralysis
- Amputation or crush injuries to limbs caught in the impact
- Multiple broken bones and internal organ damage
- Severe burns where a fuel tank or fire is involved
- Fatal injuries, which give rise to a wrongful death claim
Harm at this level usually means months of hospitalization and rehabilitation after surgery, along with a lasting hit to a person’s ability to earn a living. Those long-term costs are exactly what an insurer tries to minimize and exactly what your claim has to capture in full.
Florida Train Accident Law, Stated Correctly
A lot of injury websites still print outdated Florida deadlines, and getting this wrong can cost you your entire case. Here is the current law, stated correctly for a Palm Beach County rail claim.
The deadline is two years, not four. For negligence injury claims that accrued on or after March 24, 2023, Florida gives you two years to file suit under Fla. Stat. § 95.11(4)(a), a change made by the 2023 tort-reform law (HB 837). Many sites still list the old four-year window. Do not rely on it.
Fault can reduce or bar recovery. Under Florida’s modified comparative-fault rule at Fla. Stat. § 768.81, a person found more than 50 percent at fault recovers nothing. At 50 percent or less, the recovery is reduced by that percentage. Railroads and their insurers know this rule and lean on it hard to pin blame on the injured person.
Fatal crossings follow the Wrongful Death Act. When a crossing collision kills someone, the family’s claim runs under Fla. Stat. § 768.19 and carries its own two-year deadline.
Claims against a government entity are different. If a public road authority or transit agency shares responsibility for a crossing, special pre-suit notice rules apply and the ordinary deadline may not control. Do not assume the standard two-year window. Talk to a lawyer promptly so no notice deadline is missed.
One more point that trips people up. Florida’s PIP no-fault system and its 14-day treatment rule apply to motor-vehicle occupants, not to a pedestrian struck on the tracks. If your car was hit at a crossing, PIP may still be part of your claim, and despite what a number of 2026 websites claim, Florida did not repeal PIP or the 14-day rule this year. For a pure pedestrian rail claim, though, that framework simply does not apply, and any lawyer who forces it onto your case has misread the law.
Who Is Liable for a West Palm Beach Train Accident
Rail cases are rarely a fight against a single driver. More than one party can share responsibility, and identifying all of them is often what separates a modest recovery from a full one. This is exactly where an insider’s read on how each defendant’s insurer will respond becomes valuable.
| Potential defendant | When they may be responsible |
|---|---|
| The railroad or train operator | Excessive speed for the crossing, malfunctioning or absent warning devices, poor crossing maintenance, inadequate fencing or sight lines |
| A motor-vehicle driver | A driver who went around a lowered gate, stopped on the tracks, or ignored an active signal and struck you |
| A government or public entity | A road or transit authority responsible for crossing design, signage, or upkeep (special notice rules apply, see above) |
| A maintenance or signal contractor | A company hired to service the gates, lights, or track equipment that failed |
Because Brian spent years valuing these claims for the other side, he does not take a railroad’s or insurer’s first number at face value. The value of a train accident claim turns on the severity of the injuries, the medical care they require going forward, lost earning capacity, and the human toll on the injured person and family. Florida law now limits recoverable past medical damages to amounts actually paid or payable rather than the sticker price billed, so how the damages are documented matters a great deal. Brian builds each claim to reflect what the harm is genuinely worth and holds every responsible party to it.
Rail cases also rise or fall on evidence that vanishes fast. Modern trains carry event recorders that log speed and braking, dispatchers keep communication logs, and railroads maintain inspection and signal-maintenance records for each crossing. Much of that material sits in the railroad’s hands and is not turned over voluntarily. Getting a lawyer involved early lets the firm send preservation demands before recordings are overwritten and before maintenance logs cycle out of the system. Because Brian knows what a defense team will and will not volunteer, he moves quickly to lock down the corridor video and signal-timing data before a railroad can quietly let it disappear.
Why West Palm Beach Rail Cases Are Different
West Palm Beach sits on one of the busiest and most exposed rail corridors in the state. Brightline runs higher-speed passenger service straight through downtown along the old Florida East Coast Railway line, and FEC freight trains share that same coastal corridor near Dixie Highway. Tri-Rail commuter trains run on a separate corridor to the west. Many of these crossings sit at street level with few physical barriers between the tracks and the road or sidewalk.
That exposure has a body count. Since Brightline began South Florida service in 2018, dozens of people have been killed at crossings in Palm Beach County, and the state has responded with tens of millions of dollars in crossing-safety upgrades through FDOT and Brightline. Local crash data reinforce the risk countywide. According to FLHSMV, Palm Beach County records tens of thousands of traffic crashes every year, with roughly 150 traffic deaths in 2025 alone.
Local anchors for your case. Serious crossing-injury patients in this area are often taken to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, one of only two state-designated Level I trauma centers in Palm Beach County. Injury lawsuits are filed in the 15th Judicial Circuit at the Palm Beach County Main Courthouse, 205 N Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach.
Most crossing collisions here fall into a handful of recognizable patterns. A driver tries to beat a lowered gate or edges around it. A car gets boxed in by backed-up traffic and cannot clear the tracks in time. Sun glare along the north-south FEC corridor hides an oncoming train from a driver at the crossing. A pedestrian walks across mid-block where no gate or fence blocks the tracks, a recurring problem near the downtown West Palm Beach station. Each pattern raises a different question about who failed to keep the crossing reasonably safe, and each one calls for its own investigation. Brian tailors the case to what actually happened instead of running every rail claim through the same worn template.
A crash on this corridor also frequently overlaps with other claim types. A crossing collision can play out like a car crash when a vehicle is struck or like a pedestrian case when someone is hit on foot, and in the worst cases it becomes a wrongful death claim. Brian handles all of these across the West Palm Beach practice, so nothing about your case gets shipped elsewhere.
Results and Client Reviews
Elstein Legal has recovered millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements, including a 7.9 million dollar recovery in a wrongful-death auto case and a 2.55 million dollar result in a head-on collision. Rail cases share the same DNA as these high-impact wrecks: severe injuries, hard-fighting insurers, and disputed fault.
Clients describe the experience of working with Brian in their own words.
Brian and his Secretary went above and beyond for our case, I have never found a better attorney then Brian, when he is committed, he doesn’t seem to fail…
April Qualls, Google review
Brian is absolutely the best! He was by my side every step of the way, and made me feel so comfortable. I highly recommend him, and hope that he can be your attorney!
Chloe Fretwell, Google review
The firm holds a 5 out of 5 rating from more than 120 Google reviews. Past results do not guarantee, warrant, or predict future outcomes.
Talk to a West Palm Beach Train Accident Lawyer
If you were hurt, or you lost someone, at a rail crossing in West Palm Beach or anywhere in Palm Beach County, Brian Elstein will review your case at no cost and no obligation. You will speak with the attorney who handles the case, not an intake screener, and you pay nothing unless the firm recovers for you.
Call (305) 299-2835 any time, day or night, or request your free case evaluation online. The sooner you reach out, the sooner the evidence at the crossing can be locked down and the deadline on your claim can be protected.