(The following editorial by Angel Palank appeared on the Tampa Bay Tribune website on April 24. Angel Palank, who lives in Broward, was awarded $50 million in punitive damages in her lawsuit against CSX. She used the bulk of the money to establish the Paul Palank Memorial Foundation, which helps abused, neglected and abandoned children.)
TAMPA BAY, Fla. — Most Floridians probably don’t know that our state senators are quietly rushing through legislation that will benefit one of the nation’s most profitable companies – CSX Railroad – at the expense of public safety and at tremendous cost to Florida taxpayers.
Even as they slash funding for schools due to the budget crises, they are giving this wealthy company immunity for their future wrongdoings and forcing taxpayers to pay in its place. This could mean hundreds of millions of dollars or more for a corporation with a disastrous track record of putting corporate profits before public safety.
A transportation bill, SB 1978, has been amended to include an indemnity agreement, whereby the state agrees in advance to pay for future wrongdoings by CSX. This ensures that, no matter how badly CSX acts, and no matter how many deaths or injuries it causes, Florida taxpayers will foot the bill. This is worse than mere politics as usual – it is dangerous, potentially lethal, financially absurd and needs to be stopped.
Unfortunately, I know the danger all too well. In Lugoff, S.C., in 1991, my husband and father of my two small children was one of eight people killed and hundreds injured in a train derailment that occurred because CSX had a corporate pattern of purposely and illegally failing to maintain the railroad tracks on which our trains run.
Over the following nine years, we proved in a court of law that CSX knowingly chose to disregard federal regulations and leave their tracks in disrepair because they determined that they could make an EXTRA $2.4 billion by doing so.
I turned to the courts because I wanted justice for my husband and because I wanted to make sure that other families did not have to suffer as mine has. Judge Arthur Franza, who presided over the case, found we had proven that the willful conduct of CSX was, “the functional equivalent to manslaughter.” Yet CSX still saw fit to give itself an extra “safety bonus” that year. Clearly, the message didn’t get through.
If we do not stop our legislators, Florida will allow this company’s dangerous policies to put our safety and financial security at risk. Unfortunately, history has repeatedly shown that the only thing that can make a corporation like CSX put safety before profits is fear that they could be held accountable for the injuries they cause. But our Legislature is making sure CSX has nothing to worry about.
Additionally, this legislation is being pushed through the Senate without proper scrutiny. Normally, when a bill contains immunities like the CSX indemnity agreement, it is sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where such technical legal issues can be properly evaluated. But the Senate is skipping this step, and has instead inserted the proposal at the last minute into a transportation package that will not go to the Judiciary or any other Senate committee. Our senators now appear set to rush the newly amended legislation to the Senate floor for a vote without ever properly vetting the ramifications of the bill’s legal provisions.
As Florida grows, so will the risks – and the price tag! Freight already includes waste from our nuclear power plants, chlorine and many other hazardous materials. Had the Lugoff derailment occurred approximately one-quarter of a mile further up track, it could have exploded a natural gas line that ran under the tracks to the Dupont factory, with catastrophic results.
Let legislators know that public safety and finances are more important than one powerful corporation. Tell them that you will remember who sold out our safety to pad CSX’s pocket.