Canadian National Railway has agreed to pay members of a Rockford, Illinois (IL), family a total of $36 million in settlements for wrongful death and injury claims stemming from a derailment and fire that investigators have linked to negligence by the railroad and its train crew.
According to a detailed recreation of the June 19, 2009, accident published in the Rockford Register Star, both dispatchers and supervisors at the rail company’s headquarters and the engineer operating the train hauling 2 million gallons of highly flammable ethanol ignored repeated warnings from Rockford emergency personnel that tracks at the location where the freight train jumped the rails had been washed out by a violent thunderstorm. Subsequent investigations revealed that the engineer actually increased his train’s speed as he approached the damaged section of track.
When the train derailed, much of the liquid fuel spilled and caught fire, creating a fireball that engulfed a car carrying several members of a family. The mother died from burn injuries, the father incurred second- and third-degree burns, and a daughter who was pregnant at the time lost her unborn child while also being burned.
As a railroad accident victim’s attorney based in Virginia (VA) who has represented people hurt in derailment and rail crossing accidents, I congratulate Robert J. Bingle and Philip Harnett Corboy Jr. of Chicago for securing the largest part of the settlement — $22.5 million for the mother’s wrongful death. The plaintiff’s lawyers successfully showed that Canadian National and its subsidiaries Illinois Central Railroad and Chicago, Central & Pacific Railroad were “negligent in the operation, maintenance and supervision of the CNRC train and negligent in the maintenance and inspection of the CNRC railroad track.”
I have also helped several families receive settlements from the people and corporations that caused the wrongful death of a loved one. While I realize that no amount of money can replace a mother, wife, child or sibling, I also know it is essential to hold negligent or careless parties accountable for the suffering they cause. I’m pleased to see that this has been done in Illinois.
EJL