AMTRAK AGREES TO SETTLE LAWSUITS OVER SUNSET LIMITED DERAILMENT

AP Online

The Associated Press, national business wire circuit (Dec. 24)

MOBILE, Ala. -- Amtrak has agreed to settle 42 lawsuits filed by families of passengers who died in the 1993 Sunset Limited train derailment near Mobile, bringing an end to five years of legal wrangling.

The settlement will be presented to U.S. District Judge Richard Vollmer

after the New Year, with the payout coming in one lump sum to be divided by the court, plaintiff's lawyer Gregory Breedlove said Wednesday.

The train crash remains the deadliest in Amtrak history, killing 47 people in a remote bayou just north of Mobile.

Details of the settlement are confidential.

The Sept. 22, 1993, accident occurred when a tow-boat pilot became disoriented in a dense fog and plowed a barge into a railroad bridge in Bayou Canot.

Minutes later, the Florida-to-California Sunset Limited, with 210 passengers, hit the bent tracks and plunged into the bayou. Forty-two passengers and five crew members were killed, many of them drowning in submerged cars.

This article also appeared in:
  • The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post (Dec. 26)
  • The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Dec. 25)
  • The Boston Globe
  • The Buffalo (N.Y.) News
  • The Columbian (Vancouver, Wash.)
  • Mobile Register
  • Montgomery Advertiser
  • The Florida Times-Union
  • Fort Worth Star-Telegram
  • Palm Beach Post
  • The Columbian (Vancouver)
  • The Fresno (Calif.) Bee
  • The Plain Dealer
  • The Record (Bergen County, N.J.)
  • Ventura County (Calif.) Star
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