Cite as: 516 U. S. 400 (1996)
Opinion of the Court
recover under the Safety Appliance Act for injuries sustained while attempting to align a misaligned drawbar." Id., at 565, 644 N. E. 2d, at 511. The Illinois Supreme Court denied review, and we granted certiorari, 515 U. S. 1191 (1995), to resolve the conflict among the lower courts.2
II
A
For most of the 19th century, the link-and-pin coupler was the standard coupler used to hook together freight cars. It consisted of a tubelike body that received an oblong link. During coupling, a railworker had to stand between the cars as they came together and guide the link into the coupler pocket. Once the cars were joined, the employee inserted a pin into a hole a few inches from the end of the tube to hold the link in place. See J. White, American Railroad Freight Car 490 (1993) (hereinafter White). The link-and-pin coupler, though widely used, ultimately proved unsatisfactory because (i) it made a loose connection between the cars with too much give and play; (ii) there was no standard design and train crews often spent hours trying to match pins and links while coupling cars; (iii) links and pins were frequently lost, resulting in substantial replacement costs; and (iv) crew members had to go between moving cars during coupling and were frequently injured and sometimes killed. Id., at 490-497.
2 Compare, e. g., Kavorkian v. CSX Transportation, Inc., 33 F. 3d 570 (CA6 1994), Lisek v. Norfolk & Western R. Co., 30 F. 3d 823 (CA7 1994), cert. denied, 513 U. S. 1112 (1995), Goedel v. Norfolk & Western R. Co., 13 F. 3d 807 (CA4 1994), Reed v. Philadelphia, Bethlehem & New England R. Co., 939 F. 2d 128 (CA3 1991), and Maldonado v. Missouri Pacific R. Co., 798 F. 2d 764 (CA5 1986), with Coleman v. Burlington Northern, Inc., 681 F. 2d 542 (CA8 1982), and Metcalfe v. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. Co., 491 F. 2d 892 (CA10 1974).
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