PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. (NBC) – A jury awarded nearly $17 million to three people who sued Amtrak over a deadly derailment in Washington State.
One of the three was a passenger on the train, which derailed during its inaugural run from Tacoma to Portland, Oregon in 2017. He suffered a number of critical injuries, including a traumatic brain injury. A jury awarded him nearly $8 million.
The other two plaintiffs are a married couple. The jury awarded them a combined $9 million.
A truck driver who was critically injured when a rail car landed on his truck on the interstate below and his wife sued for damages tied to the toll those injuries took on her family.
The derailment injured dozens of people, killing three.
The National Transportation SAFETY board faulted Amtrak, finding the engineer’s training to be “inadequate.”
The train was going more than twice the speed limit for the curve where it derailed.
The board’s vice chairman blasted what he described as a “Titanic-like complacency” among those charged with ensuring safe train operations.
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