(The Associated Press circulated the following article by Jeffrey Collins on August 4.)
COLUMBIA, S.C. — People who were evacuated for days after a deadly chlorine leak following a train wreck in Graniteville need an extra month to file claims against the railroad company, a lawyer in a class-action suit against the railroad company said Thursday.
The claim period had been extended two weeks to Aug. 15, but plaintiffs’ attorney Joe Rice wants a judge to extend the period to Sept. 15.
The extensions are needed because filling out a claim can take time and many people don’t show up with all the information they need, like proof they lived inside the 1-mile area evacuated after the Jan. 6 train wreck.
“Where we are working out of is a fairly small location and it’s taking people longer to fill out their claim forms,” Rice said.
Rice said Norfolk Southern lawyers have agreed to the extension, which must be approved by a federal judge. Attorneys for the railroad didn’t immediately return a telephone message from The Associated Press.
Nearly 2,000 claims have been filed, Rice said. He did not have an estimate on the average value of each claim.
Authorities have said 5,400 people were evacuated when a Norfolk Southern train plowed into a parked railroad cars on a side track, rupturing a tanker and spewing chlorine gas into the tiny mill village. Nine people were killed and 250 injured in the deadliest train wreck involving hazardous material in nearly three decades.
Norfolk Southern has agreed to compensate residents fully for property damage and lost wages and businesses for lost profits. The company also is paying for the inconvenience of the evacuation and minor personal injuries.
Under the settlement, Norfolk Southern would pay $2,000 per household within one mile of the crash site for inconvenience as well as $200 per day, per person for those who didn’t seek medical attention within 72 hours after the crash.
It’s unclear how much money the railroad will spend on the settlement, but Norfolk Southern expects to spend $35 million for cleanup costs, legal claims and other expenses from the wreck, company spokesman Robin Chapman has said.
The families of those killed and anyone injured seriously enough to go to the hospital is excluded from the settlement and can sue the railroad company on their own. Anyone else evacuated must opt out of the settlement to be able to sue Norfolk Southern individually, Rice said.
About 500 people have opted out so far, but half of them live outside the evacuation zone and wouldn’t have been included in the class-action suit anyway, Rice said.
The lawyers will ask for the claim deadline to be extended at a hearing in Aiken on Aug. 17. At the same hearing, a federal judge is expected to hear arguments from other lawyers that the payments from Norfolk Southern are too low.