The tragic Amtrak Train 501 derailment outside Tacoma, Washington, that has left at least three people dead and injured dozens more on its maiden passenger voyage has left many questions as National Transportation Safety Investigators (NTSB) start sorting through the wreckage.
The cause of the train derailment of 12 cars and two locomotives won’t be known until months, perhaps even years, of investigation. Even NTSB board member Bella Dinh-Zarr told the press late in the night following the December 18th crash that it was “too early to tell” why the train was traveling at 80 miles per hour on a curve that carried a 30 mph limit.
The NTSB will be looking to the event data record or the so-called “black box” that has much of the technical information regarding the train’s operations, but investigators also will be looking into the training and whereabouts of the conductor and anyone else in charge of transporting 80 passengers, three crew members and two service personnel from Seattle, Washington, to Portland, Oregon, that fateful day.
Answers may come from lawsuits filed by those who were injured or the families of those who lost loved ones because they deserve answers and to try to be a part of the investigative process as it is happening, not just rely on an end result months or years later.
Clifford Law Offices has experience in dealing with train crash cases – as co-lead counsel in the 1999 Amtrak crash in Bourbonnais, Illinois, that settled for a confidential multi-million-dollar amount for several of the passengers and their families to the case of the Union Pacific 140-ton freight train that derailed in a Chicago suburb (Glenview) that landed on a vehicle below, killing a husband and wife that was successfully handled by Clifford Law Offices.
Robert Clifford and Kevin Durkin tried the case of a Metra train that dragged an internationally-acclaimed violinist who suffered severe injuries to her legs. Following a month-long trial, they obtained a record $29.6 million verdict that later settled for $35 million.
These lawyers are experienced in what one needs to know and the questions that need to be asked. They also know how to get answers, the answers that these passengers and their families need as well as answers that the entire traveling public deserve.
To speak to Robert Clifford contact Clifford Law Offices Communications Partner Pamela Sakowicz Menaker at 847-721-0909 (cell).