The first of the two defendants is Mariano Rodriguez, director of the engineering department at BNSF Railway. Rodriguez is responsible for ensuring the “safety, proper inspection and maintenance” of railway junctions such as the one near Menton, the lawsuit said. But the widow claims to have failed to do so, citing “reduced” triangles of vision “of the crossing, an” too small passage angle “and other damage, including” sloping approaches, brush, trees and vegetation that prevent full view of the oncoming in some quarters “. He said that “the surfaces of the passage were narrow, rough and poorly maintained.” Photo of the derailed Amtrak train in Missouri. Ron Gule In addition, the crossing had no “bells, gates or lights” to warn vehicles of an oncoming train – it only had beams or signs saying the rails were close, the suit says. “These conditions at the crossing created an extremely dangerous crossing,” the uniform says, adding that the conditions have been such for years. The lawsuit alleges that the trains took a long time – perhaps up to a mile – to stop completely. “This makes proper guarding, inspection and maintained passage critical to safety,” he says. Given these alleged security concerns, Rodriguez “knew or should have known that the Porche crossing posed a serious risk to the public,” the lawsuit said. On June 27, these failures resulted in a deadly collision and derailment, the lawsuit states. Her husband Erin Burton was driving a dump truck through the driveway and “did not see or hear the train coming with sufficient warning to cross the lines safely.” The crash killed him and three others on a train carrying nearly 300 people from Los Angeles to Chicago. Many others were injured in the incident. At least 3 dead in Amtrak train derailment 02:31 Erin Burton is seeking $ 25,000 and interest on the costs of filing the lawsuit. He also sued Missouri’s Chariton County, where the accident took place, for the same compensation. The lawsuit alleges that the county failed to properly plan, inspect and maintain its roads, including access roads. He says the county also violated many road construction standards. Prior to the crash, residents had reported several crossing problems to the county road authority, the lawsuit said. Therefore, according to the lawsuit, the county was aware of the problems and its negligence “caused or directly contributed” to Burton’s death. This is the first lawsuit filed as a result of the crash. More than 10 derailment victims, including the family of a man who died, have retained lawyers “to represent their interests,” a separate law firm said in a statement to CBS News. Sixteen National Transportation Safety Council investigators were on the scene to try to determine the cause of the crash, President Jennifer Hometi said on Wednesday. They will download the train incident log and examine the two forward-facing train cameras as well as the dump truck electronic control unit. He said the NTSB had been recommending “for several years” passive crossings, such as the one near Mendon, be either activated or closed or consolidated. He also pointed to a 1998 NTSB study which suggested that vehicles have technology that would alert train drivers to trains in the area. Amtrak said Monday night that it was “deeply saddened” to learn of the deaths, adding that it was working with local authorities. On Thursday, Amtrak and railway company BNSF, which owns the line where the collision occurred, sued Barton’s employer and the owner of the dump truck, MS Contracting, claiming responsibility for the accident and blaming the company for negligence. . The lawsuit alleges that Burton “failed to grant access to the nearest Amtrak Southwest Chief Train 4”, resulting in a collision. He considered his actions “insecure, careless and reckless”. He accused the company of “negligently, carelessly and recklessly” failing to adequately train Barton and maintain the truck. The accident injured and killed Amtrak employees and passengers, caused significant damage to assets belonging to the two companies and led to delays and interruption of services, according to the lawsuit. Amtrak and BNSF have claimed more than $ 75,000 in damages since the crash and are seeking more than $ 75,000 each in the lawsuit.

Sophie Redon

Sophie Reardon is a news editor at CBS News. Contact her at [email protected]