Amtrak to pay $265 million for fatal crash near Philadelphia
The victims will receive payouts next year
Amtrak will pay out $265 million to settle a lawsuit over the crash that killed eight people and injured more than 200 others, lawyers told The Associated Press on Thursday. Victims will now receive their awards by June of next year and have until November 21 to join the settlement.
"The program basically allows for a judge, with help from two masters, to hold hearings and evaluate damages," attorney Thomas R Kline told the news agency. Mr Kline led the lawsuit on behalf of the victims affected by the crash.
Last year, federal officials announced that the Amtrak Regional Train 188 was traveling from Washington DC to New York City and derailed minutes after it departed the city of Philadelphia. Approximately 238 passengers were on board along with five crew members. The train was traveling at 106mph, more than twice the speed limit when it derailed. Amtrak officials have since taken responsibility for the crash.
The victims killed in the crash were later identified as Laura Finamore, a 47-year-old managing director at Cushman & Wakefield; Giuseppe Piras, a 41-year-old wine and oil merchant; Justin Zemser, a 20-year-old US Naval Academy midshipman; Jim Gaines, a 48-year-old Associated Press software architect; Abid Gilani, a Wells Fargo executive; Rachel Jacobs, a 38-year-old executive of ApprenNet; Derrick Griffith, a dean of student affairs for the City University of New York; and Bob Gildersleeve, an executive at Ecolab.
Investigators would later conclude that the engineer had been distracted by a train that had been hit by a rock, the AP reports, and unknowingly took his train to full-speed without slowing down before the 50mph curve.
"This was something that never had to happen," survivor Robert Hewitt told the news agency. "His actions could have been easily prevented."