JACKSONVILLE — The long legal process already has started with a class-action lawsuit filed in federal court in Jacksonville, and another is planned on behalf of passengers in last week’s Amtrak derailment in Crescent City that killed four, the Florida Times-Union reports.
A team of law firms, led by Hallandale Beach attorney Brian Rodier, filed a class-action suit the day after the accident against Amtrak. The suit was later changed to include Jacksonville’s CSX Transportation and its parent company, CSX Corp., and the manufacturers of the train tracks.
Jacksonville attorney Scott Parks, who has represented plaintiffs in nearly 100 cases involving railroads, said he plans to file within 14 days and has three clients from the Crescent City disaster.
When the National Transportation Safety Board wraps up its investigation, which may take months, it won’t be the end of the story. For victims of the derailment and the companies involved, lawsuits and counterlawsuits mean the process is just beginning.
Parks and other attorneys said railroad accidents generally take years to resolve — and this one won’t be any different.
“I predict it’s going to be the same type of thing, where you’ve got to be patient and let the investigation run its course,” he said.
Four people were killed and more than 150 injured in the April 18 derailment of Amtrak’s Auto Train. The National Transportation Safety Board is focusing its investigation on misaligned tracks as the possible cause, but board spokesman Keith Holloway said yesterday nothing has been ruled out.
The 40-car train was going 56 mph in a 60-mph zone while traveling from Sanford to Lorton, Va. The train carried 418 passengers and 34 crew members, as well as 200 automobiles.
Personal injury cases normally are time consuming when there is only one defendant. Multiple defendants are sure to make this case slower than usual as each party tries to shift the blame, Rodier said.
“I believe they’ll be pointing fingers,” he said. “I assume they’ll both have their engineers, and the engineers will battle it out.”
Rodier, who declined to say how many passengers his team is representing, said the team probably would be chosen for the class action because they filed first. His team includes Little Rock, Ark.-based attorney Gene Cauley and New Orleans attorney Paul Brannon.
Parks said he has represented clients in 25 Amtrak crossing cases and four derailments. He’s also been involved with clients in 50 to 60 CSX cases, and 11 CSX cases regarding clients claiming brain damage from cleaning solvents.
Recently, he has advertised in the newspaper to drum up clients for the Crescent City derailment.
In 1993, Parks represented three clients in the derailment of Amtrak’s Sunset Limited near Mobile, Ala., in which 47 people were killed. That suit was settled by Amtrak in 1998.
CSXT has been involved in another high-profile train accident.
In July 2001, a 60-car CSX train derailed in Baltimore’s Howard Street Tunnel, disrupting downtown traffic and knocking out power in parts of the city.
A city waterline broke during the accident, and CSXT claimed the break caused the derailment, while the city said the accident caused the break.
CSXT already has spent $650,000 for that accident, even though no one was killed and the cause hasn’t been determined by the NTSB. But whatever the outcome, lawsuits are sure to follow and take plenty of time to resolve.
Jacksonville attorney Robert Beckham, who has dealt with railroad cases for 45 years, said the delay in resolving such cases is typically caused by money rather than determining responsibility.
“The transportation company is usually the first to know the cause of the accident and the injured people are the last to know,” he said.
“They have the opportunity to gather and make tentative appraisal of the long-term handling of the situation. If it was their fault, they save a lot of money and time if they can make a fair and quick settlement.”