(The Associated Press circulated the following story on September 22.)
LOS ANGELES — Three families filed a lawsuit Monday against Union Pacific Railroad claiming a June derailment that demolished their homes in Commerce was done intentionally as a business decision.
The railroad has taken full responsibility for the June 20 derailment that occurred when runaway rail cars clocked at 86 mph were diverted onto a 15 mph-rated siding in Commerce to stop them. Two home were destroyed, six others heavily damaged and 13 people were injured when 28 of 31 boxcars filled with lumber derailed.
Company officials have said they had to divert the cars because they were on a collision course with a train carrying explosive propane gas and they feared the freight cars could enter downtown Los Angeles.
The Superior Court lawsuit filed on behalf of the Vasquez, Zambrano and Gonzalez families accused Union Pacific of negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. It claims the railroad decided to halt the train’s progress at a siding in a residential neighborhood to prevent it from entering its own rail and freight yards in Commerce.
The lawsuit alleges Union Pacific violated the state code for unfair business practices. If successful, the lawsuit could force Union Pacific to return profits earned as a result of not having to close its own rail yard. The lawsuit seeks about $10 million in damages.
“They knew it would derail and there was a likelihood one of those 31 trains would go over into that adjacent residential neighborhood,” said Arnoldo Casillas, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. “That decision was an intentional one and serves as the basis for punitive damages.”
Kathryn Blackwell, a spokeswoman for Union Pacific in Omaha, Neb., said the company did not intentionally derail the cars, but sent them onto the siding to try to stop them.
Union Pacific has settled with 25 families, but those figures have not been released, Blackwell said.
The railroad put 53 people in a Commerce hotel after the accident and in August gave them 45 days notice that the company would find them apartments and pay their first six months rent or give them $5,000 in cash. No one had to agree to settle with the company to accept the offer, Blackwell said.
The railroad was criticized after the accident for failing to notify officials in Commerce or Los Angeles County about the runaway freight cars. Railroad officials promised to improve its notification system.
The derailment remains under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.