(The Gary Post-Tribune published the following story by Frank Wiget on its website on October 9.)
VALPARAISO — More than five years after their husbands were killed in a train crash, three widows have reached a settlement that will award them millions of dollars in damages.
Attorneys for the wives of the three men killed in the 4:31 a.m. June 18, 1998, South Shore passenger train collision with a steel coil-hauling truck at the Midwest Steel entrance off U.S. 12 in Portage reached a settlement with the nine defendants in last-minute negotiations Wednesday morning.
Porter Superior Court Judge Roger Bradford and more than a dozen attorneys commended the efforts of mediator Robert Kennedy, a former Porter Superior Court judge, in reaching an agreement.
Kennedy spent the last two weeks talking daily with attorneys and insurance company officials, which led to the agreement. “I’m going home to get some sleep,” he said as he left the courtroom, after shaking hands with the attorneys.
While attorneys didn’t reveal how much money will be paid out, they did say it was more than the previous record for Porter County of $1.5 million paid out in a wrongful death case.
Chicago attorney Kevin P. Durkin said his client, Carole H. McCombs of LaPorte, will receive more than the $1.5 million record. Her 57-year-old husband, William, died in the crash.
None of the attorneys revealed the actual amounts that will be paid as result of the settlement.
The other plaintiffs were Carol A. Berndt, wife of 53-year-old crash victim Gary G. Berndt of Baroda, Mich., and Christa E. Walker of Michigan City, wife of 39-year-old Glen Walker.
McCombs was a stock broker in Chicago. Walker had worked for the South Shore Railroad for two years as a carman at the Adam Benjamin Metro Center in Gary. Berndt was a systems engineer for U.S. Cellular in Chicago and took the South Shore from the Michigan City station.
Ted Leonas of Palos Heights, Ill., attorney for Christa Walker, said she now has some closure. “She and her (now) 17-year-old son can get on with their lives.”
Bob Ehrenberg of St. Joseph, Mich., attorney for Carol Berndt, said, “No amount of money can replace the loss of her husband, Gary.”
The westbound commuter train slammed into the rear trailer that hung over the south Shore track as driver Keith J. Lintz waited for a Conrail freight train to pass so he could enter the main gate of National Steel Corp.’s Midwest Steel plant. Norfolk Southern Railway Co. now uses the Conrail tracks. Midwest is now owned by U.S. Steel.
Defendants in the lawsuit resolved Wednesday included Lintz of Niles, Mich; Richard Pluta of Hobart, owner of the tractor-trailer rig; Eastern Express Inc. of Griffith, the company that leased the tractor and two trailers; and Top Line Express Inc. of Lima, Ohio, which subleased the rig.
Other defendants were Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, which operates the South Shore commuter line between South Bend and Chicago; Norfolk Southern Railway Co.; Consolidated Railroad Corp. (Conrail); Sequa Corp. and Sequa Coatings Corp. and Precoat Metals Inc.; National Steel Corp.; and Thyssen Inc., a German company that was shipping the steel coils to Sequa Corp.’s Precoat Metals in the Port of Indiana in Portage.
Sequa attorney Jason Massaro of Munster said, “We are pleased with the resolution of this case. It was a fair settlement for all parties.”
NICTD spokesman John Parsons said after the settlement was reached it won’t affect South Shore fares.
Also included were Larry Richter, Charlotte Richter and Richter and Sons, which dispatched the truck driver to pick up a load of three steel coils at Thyssen Steel Group in Detroit.
Prior to the trial, Valparaiso attorney Kevin J. Allen reached a settlement with the defendants for 16 people injured in the train-truck crash five years ago. He said the agreement in his class action lawsuit calls for payment of nearly $1 million to his clients.
Allen said a major improvement is being made to prevent such accidents with a bridge that will replace the grade-level crossing where lives were lost and other people injured. That was one of the goals of the lawsuit, he said.
Bradford said before the settlement he wanted the trial finished before Thanksgiving.