Amtrak worker sues, alleging train in Missouri crash was overcrowded

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Another Amtrak employee has filed a lawsuit after a deadly train crash earlier this summer in Chariton County, Missouri.

Carilyn White’s lawsuit is the second filed in recent weeks alleging the train was overcrowded when it collided with a dump truck on June 27, leaving four people dead and at least 150 injured.

The crash caused $4 million in damage to the train and tracks, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board. The agency’s investigation is ongoing.

White, an Amtrak employee who works on the Southwest Chief route from Los Angeles to Chicago, filed the suit against her employer, BNSF Railway and MS Contracting.

She said she was in the dining car when the crash happened, derailing the eight-car train. White said she sustained severe and permanent injuries.

White alleges Amtrak didn’t provide a reasonably safe place to work, citing the Federal Employer Liability Act, and didn’t do enough to prevent the crash.

She also alleges Amtrak intentionally overcrowded the train beyond safe capacity. An Iowa couple who were passengers on the train also made the same allegation in their own lawsuit.

“Not only was every seat filled, but Amtrak allowed so much luggage to be brought onto the train that the designated luggage car could not hold it all, and Amtrak placed excess luggage in the passenger car lounges,” Janet Williams and her husband said in their filing last month.

White also alleges BNSF Railway breached its duty of due care in its design and maintenance of Porche Prairie Crossing, a passive railroad crossing that doesn’t have lights or other signals to warn of an approaching train.

Additionally, White says MS Contracting, owner of the dump truck involved in the crash, says the truck went through the crossing “despite the fact that it was unsafe, careless and reckless to do so.”

Altogether, White is asking for over $200,000 in damages from the three companies.

This is one of several lawsuits filed following the deadly crash.

Amtrak and BNSF Railway filed a federal lawsuit against MS Contracting. Four passengers and two Amtrak crew members filed a suit against BNSF, Amtrak and MS Contracting, alleging they’re responsible for causing the collision.

The widow of the truck driver killed in the crash has also filed a lawsuit against Chariton County and a BNSF employee. The family of a Kansas woman also killed in the crash has sued MS Contracting, BNSF and that employee.