BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. — The following press release was issued by Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley:
The April 18 train derailment in Crescent City, Fla., is eerily similar to a 1991 train derailment that took the life of the husband of Angel Palank, a South Florida woman.
On July 31, 1991, Paul Palank, who was a Miami Police Officer, was on an Amtrak Miami-to-Washington train. The tracks were owned by CSX. In a rural town in South Carolina, the train derailed and smashed into nine freight cars. Mr. Palank was killed along with seven others, while 71 people were injured.
In this recent case, the train was an Amtrak train, enroute from Sanford, Fla.-to Lorton, Va. The tracks were also owned by CSX. Four people were killed and more than 100 were injured. In the Palank case, CSX said that they had just inspected the tracks. News reports in this recent case also quote CSX officials as saying they had just inspected the tracks.
“To hear about this recent train derailment is traumatically similar and very upsetting,” said widow Angel Palank. “I have to wonder about CSX’s involvement in this case and their possible disregard for the public on the railroad track system.”
In the Palank case, National Transportation Safety Board officials showed that a retaining pin, which controlled the switch mechanism, had been broken and missing for seven months, before the switch came apart under the train. Further investigations by attorneys Chris Searcy and Greg Barnhart from the law firm of Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley in West Palm Beach, showed that CSX had made substantial safety and maintenance force cutbacks, which resulted in the tragedy.
In 1995, a South Florida jury awarded Mrs. Palank $6.1 million in compensatory damages. In 1997, she was awarded $50 million in punitive damages, the largest verdict of its kind for a single death. Despite CSX’s numerous appeals, on October 3, 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Mrs. Palank.
In 2001, Mrs. Palank launched the Paul Palank Memorial Foundation. A major portion of the proceeds from Mrs. Palank’s award is being used to aid abused, neglected and abandoned children in Broward and Dade Counties.