(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch.
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Bill would indemnify railroads for trail injuries

['Jared Strong', 'More From Author', '- March']

Date: 2022-03-08 00:00:00


Proposed legislation that was approved by the Iowa House and has early support in the Senate would eliminate the risks of injury litigation for railroad companies that allow recreational trails to be built on portions of their railways.

House File 2415 was advanced by a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday.

The bill is meant to help Oelwein — a northeast Iowa town of about 5,900 — complete an expansive trail system that would circle the town and connect to other area trails.

“This will actually help a ton of cities throughout the state as they are crossing railroad lines, going near railroad lines, or trying to work with anybody that has private property,” said Dylan Mulfinger, the city administrator for Oelwein. “If we run an easement through you, you’re not responsible if someone is actively using that trail and has an accident on your property.”

Oelwein’s issue arose about two years ago as it was poised to start the multi-year trail project but was met with resistance from Iowa Northern Railway Company, Mulfinger said. Iowa Northern has a railway that connects to Waterloo and a sizeable rail yard in Oelwein. The trail was planned to cross the railway in one part of town and traverse railroad property in another, he said.

Mulfinger said the company balked at easements to put the trail on its property because of its potential legal liability if someone is injured. A spokesperson for Iowa Northern did not immediately respond to a request to comment for this article.

So Iowa Rep. Chad Ingels, R-Randalia, who represents the area, introduced the legislation to amend the state’s recreational use statute — which confers liability protection to people who open their land to a variety of public recreational activities — to include railways. The bill would also add bicycling, jogging and walking to the list of activities.

“It was a little tweak in the language, is what we really did,” Ingels said. “It wasn’t a big change. Just provided some protection at those railroad crossings where a trail would cross.”

A similar bill failed to gain sufficient support for passage in the last legislative session. Ingels introduced the new bill in late January, and it was unanimously passed by the House last week.

The bill cleared a Senate Natural Resources and Environment subcommittee on Tuesday but was not taken up by the full committee later that day, even though it was a tentative part of the committee’s agenda.

“If the bill goes through, we’ll add the addition into our 2023 construction plans,” Mulfinger said.

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