An Amtrak passenger train derailed Sunday morning in Chester, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, just southwest of Philadelphia. According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and data collected from the onboard event recorder – a device similar to an airplane’s black box recorder – the train was traveling at 106 miles per hour when it collided with an industrial backhoe on the tracks, resulting in the death of the backhoe operator and a nearby administrator who was on foot. The speed limit for that portion of tracks is 110 mph but it is currently unclear if the train had the authority to be on that track, or if the backhoe did either.
341 passengers and seven Amtrak crewmen were onboard at the time of the collision. 30 people were hospitalized and the extent of the passengers’ injuries are unclear at this time.
AMTRAK’S RECENT HISTORY OF FATAL DERAILMENTS
Nearly one year ago, another fatal Amtrak train accident occurred in nearby Philadelphia (May 12th, 2015). A seven-car passenger train flew nearly-entirely off the tracks as it raced into a curve traveling at 106 miles per hour – speed coincidental in relation to recent incident – when the posted speed limit was 50 mph. The result was 200 injuries, many of which were serious, and 8 fatalities. In addition to the engineer’s negligence, the tracks had not been fitted with the latest automated speed control systems. Morelli Law Firm represents numerous victims injured in the accident.
Morelli Law Firm was appointed by Judge Legrome Davis as interim co-lead counsel on behalf of plaintiffs for the Amtrak (5/12/15) train derailment multidistrict litigation (MDL). The MDL is centralized in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania federal court, and is comprised of all cases filed by victims of the Amtrak train derailment on federal courts around the country. The goal of the litigation is to provide ample compensation to all victims.
To learn more about these incidents, or if you believe you have a claim in either train accident case due to your own injuries, be sure to contact our New York train injury attorneys as soon as you can. Just dial toll-free at 877.751.9800 to reach Morelli Law Firm today.