(The following story by Jimmie E. Gates appeared on the Clarion Ledger website on July 25.)
JACKSON, Miss. — A California couple was awarded $1.97 million Thursday by a Hinds County Circuit Court jury for injuries they suffered four years ago in an Amtrak train crash near Flora.
Sheila Doyle Lortz, 58, of Murphys, Calif., suffered back and head injuries and still has chronic pain as a result of the derailment, her attorneys said.
Her husband, Charles Lortz, 56, suffered minor injuries.
The crash killed one person and injured dozens.
“We feel relieved,” said Sheila Doyle Lortz, who goes by Doyle, moments after the jury award. “It has been hard. … This verdict helps, but you can never get back what you lost.”
The jury deliberated about 2 1/2 hours after the two-week trial in Judge Winston Kidd’s court.
Doyle cried after the verdict and hugged her husband.
“It was a well-reasoned verdict,” said Jackson lawyer John Walker, one of the couple’s attorneys.
Illinois Central Railway acknowledges the couple should be compensated, just not with the $4.1 million their attorneys had asked for during closing arguments.
“We agree she is entitled to reasonable compensation, but it has to be reasonable, not excessive,” said defense attorney George Ritter.
Ritter said after the verdict was read that it was too early to say whether an appeal will be filed.
Wayne Ferrell, another attorney for the couple, said Doyle’s past medical bills total $295,000, and she has medication costs of $12,162.
Before the accident, Ferrell said Doyle was a vibrant woman who loved hiking and canoeing. “This lady is in pain for the rest of her life,” he said.
But during his closing, Ritter said the railway company paid $100,000 to a private investigation firm to monitor Doyle’s activities. Some of a video showed Doyle performing normal activity. “She has moved on with her life,” Ritter told the jury.
Doyle was a teacher’s aide for handicapped students before the Amtrak crash. Her attorneys said she was incapable of performing the job after her injuries.
Ferrell said the couple was on their 25th wedding anniversary when the Amtrak train derailed. The two were among the passengers in an observation car. They said they saw a cloud of dust and the train started tipping on its side.
The train had left New Orleans heading to Chicago, from where they planned to go on to New York. About 61 passengers and 12 crew members were aboard.
Several lawsuits were filed over the derailment, but the couple’s was the first to come to trial.
The train derailed near the Madison-Yazoo county line in Kearney Park. It derailed on the same tracks where a freight train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed in 1997, forcing the evacuation of about 4,000 Flora-area residents. Three other freight trains have derailed on those tracks within a five-mile stretch – in 1986 and twice in 1994.