A lawsuit filed by Amtrak and CSX alleges that a trucking company caused a March train derailment that injured 55 people by failing to take safety precautions or warn that the track was blocked.
The lawsuit in a Raleigh federal court blames Guy M. Turner Inc. of Greensboro, N.C., for the March 9 crash in which an Amtrak passenger train collided with an oversized tractor-trailer.
The lawsuit says the driver blocked the crossing in disregard of safety signs and failed to notify track owners CSX, or Amtrak, that the railway was blocked. It also says that the trucking company’s Turner Transfer division failed to take reasonable safety precautions.
The oversized truck carrying electrical equipment was attempting to make a left turn when it got stuck at the railway crossing in Halifax. The shipment was bound from North Carolina to New Jersey.
Witnesses have said that the driver of the truck spent between 15 and 20 minutes moving back and forth in the crossing before the railroad warning arms came down. He jumped out just before impact.
The lawsuit doesn’t specify an amount of damages being sought but says it would be more than $75,000 for each company.
CSX and Amtrak also expect to face personal injury claims from people in the crash, but the trucking company should bear financial responsibility for those claims because it caused the crash, according to the lawsuit.
Topics Lawsuits Auto North Carolina
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