Tanya Nunez v. BNSF Railway Company

POSNER, Circuit Judge.

Cynthia Madden was killed when her car was struck by the defendant’s train at a railroad crossing in Illinois. Her estate sued the railroad, basing jurisdiction on diversity of citizenship and claiming that her death had been caused by the railroad’s negligence—specifically that the railroad crossing gates had descended, the warning lights at the crossing had begun flashing, and the locomotive horn had been blown, all fewer than 20 seconds (fewer than 15 seconds in the case of the horn) before the train reached the crossing, in violation of applicable federal safety…