According to recent reports, Metrolink, one of the public transportation train operators in Los Angeles, California, has agreed to settle all but one personal injury lawsuit arising out of a January 2005 train derailment that killed 11 passengers and injured several hundred more.  To speak with a top-rated train accident attorney in Chicago, call Passen Law Group at (312) 527-500 for a Free Consultation.

The 2005 Metrolink train crash occurred when a Metrolink train collided with a Jeep Cherokee that had been abandoned on the tracks.  The train derailed and struck multiple trains on either side of the parked vehicle, resulting in 11 deaths and injuries to nearly 200 others.  Juan Manuel Alvarez, who intentionally left his car on the train tracks, was convicted of 11 counts of murder, and sentenced to prison for 11 consecutive life sentences for his role in causing the train derailment injury and deaths.

Lead attorney for plaintiffs in the civil action, Jerome Ringler, stated that all except one of the 186 complaints filed against Metrolink arising out of the January 2005 train derailment have been resolved.  All of the 11 wrongful death lawsuits have  been resolved, and 15 of the 16 catastrophic injury lawsuits (involving critical, permanent injuries) have settled.  One more serious injury action remains, which Mr. Ringler expects to resolve soon.

After Metrolink settles this mass injury lawsuit, it must move on to address the series of lawsuits arising out of a deadly train-car crash in Chatsworth in 2008 that killed 25 people.  The 2008 Metrolink train accident occurred on September 12, 2008, when a Union Pacific freight train and a Metrolink commuter train collided head-on in a district of Los Angeles.

There are various suggestions of negligence as the cause of this collision:  the Metrolink’s train engineer was near the end of a long work week and may have been over hours — suggesting fatigue as a cause of negligence; the engineer may have been distracted by sending text messages while on duty; the train may have blown through a red light signal before the train crash occurred.

For a Free Consultation with an experienced Chicago train accident lawyer with national representation, call Passen Law Group at (312) 527-4500.