Summer 2002
Volume 109 - No. 2

FELA Series

Correctly filling out accident reports is important under the FELA

It cannot be repeated often enough, that if you are injured on the railroad, it is imperative that you report your accident using the appropriate form provided by your carrier. Failure to do so can seriously abridge your right to work under your collective bargaining agreement.

Aside from your duty to report the accident, it is also very important that you understand that many accident reports are designed to have the employee claim responsibility for his own accident and disclaim responsibility on the part of the carrier.

This is done because the Federal Employers Liability Act is a fault-based statute. As mentioned in previous articles in this publication, FELA is unlike workman's compensation. It requires the employee prove that the carrier was at fault for the injury and the employee's share of the blame, if any, diminishes his claim by any fault attributable to him/her.

For these reasons, it is most important that each employee carefully read and examine an injury report before signing it. Completing it requires that you fully understand that to check off a box alleging that the company did nothing wrong because you are requested to do so by the claim agent is both inadequate and incorrect unless it is true.

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© 2002 Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers