Railway Turntable - Accidents

Accidents

In the United States, when deciding liability for turntable accidents, most state courts followed the precedent set by the United States Supreme Court in Sioux City & Pacific R.R. v. Stout (1873). In that case, a six-year-old child was playing on the unguarded, unfenced turntable when his friends began turning it. While attempting to get off, his foot became stuck and was crushed. The Court held that although the railroad was not bound by the same duty of care to strangers as it was to its passengers, it would be liable for negligence "if from the evidence given it might justly be inferred by the jury that the defendant, in the construction, location, management, or condition of its machine has omitted that care and attention to prevent the occurrence of accidents which prudent and careful men ordinarily bestow."

In the case of Chicago B. & Q.R. Co. v. Krayenbuhl (1902), a four year old child was playing on an unlocked, unguarded railroad turntable. Other children set the turntable in motion, and it severed the ankle of the young child. The child's family sued the railroad company on a theory of negligence and won at trial. The Nebraska Supreme Court held that the railroad company may have been liable for negligence after considering the "character and location of the premises, the purpose for which they are used, the probability of injury therefrom, the precautions necessary to prevent such injury, and the relations such precautions bear to the beneficial use of the premises." However, the Supreme Court reversed the trial court's decision based on an improper jury instruction as to the evidence.

Accidents to locomotives sometimes occurred. For example, if the turntable was incorrectly set and a locomotive was accidentally started or failed to stop, it might fall into the turntable pit.