(The following article by Jessica Keating was posted on the Ventura County Star website on February 10.)
VENTURA, Calif. — Passengers in last month’s deadly Metrolink train derailment have begun filing insurance claims against the transit agency, a necessary step before litigation.
Denise Tyrrell, a Metrolink spokeswoman, confirmed Wednesday that insurance claims have been filed by crash survivors and the families of those who were killed. She declined to discuss the claims in further detail, saying Metrolink officials have yet to sort out the number of claims or the allegations.
News of the claims comes three weeks after a passenger train from Moorpark to downtown Los Angeles derailed near Glendale. The train hit an SUV parked on the tracks before crashing into a stationary freighter and a second, northbound Metrolink train.
Four Ventura County residents were among the 11 who died. About 200 others were injured in the crash, some of whom remain hospitalized.
Though authorities have charged an apparently suicidal man, 25-year-old Juan Manuel Alvarez, with causing the crash, attorneys recently retained by crash victims say Metrolink shares the blame for the derailment.
“The case is a horrible tragedy that took the lives of 11 people and could have been avoided if Metrolink had used available alternatives,” said Jerome Ringler, a Los Angeles attorney.
Ringler, who recently won a $9 million verdict in Orange County in connection with a Metrolink crash three years ago, said he planned to file claims on behalf of a half-dozen victims of the Jan. 26 crash. He represents Simi Valley resident Rita Tutino, whose husband, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy James Tutino, died in the derailment.
Ringler and another Los Angeles attorney, Victor Russo, say the devastation in Glendale could have been avoided if Metrolink used only trains pulled by locomotives in the front. Currently, trains can be pushed by locomotives in the back, as was the case with the train that derailed last month.
A train with a locomotive and a steel brace in front would have pushed the parked SUV off the tracks, the attorneys contend.
“It seems like there are a number of things the railroad could have done, should have done,” Russo said. “It’s easily preventable.”
Russo said his office had been contacted by numerous victims, but he declined to discuss specific cases. Many of his potential clients saw an ad his firm ran in the Ventura County Star.
Other attorneys may be using less legitimate means, however, to rack up business, according to the State Bar of California.
Bar officials said investigators sent to the crash scene reported seeing people with clipboards loitering around the wreckage, and they may have been capping, or illegally soliciting potential clients.
According to the bar, investigators at the crash scene instructed victims they had the right to choose their own attorneys and provided them with brochures to help with lawyer referrals.
For referral information or to report violations of the solicitation guidelines, call 1-866-442-2529 or visit the bar’s Web site at http://www.calbar.ca.gov.