KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KSHB) — An Amtrak train attendant who was on board the Southwest Chief on June 27 when it collided with a dump truck has filed a lawsuit in state court.
The state lawsuit marks the first time that the Missouri Department of Transportation is listed as a defendant in the deadly crash.
RELATED: Complete Amtrak crash coverage
Attorneys representing Iesha Coleman, of California, allege MoDOT was negligent for not addressing what they describe as “dangerous conditions” at the railroad crossing where the train struck a dump truck.
The crossing was on a 2022 MoDOT report of locations slated for upgrades.
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak), BNSF and MS Contracting LLC, the company that owned and operated the dump truck, were also named the lawsuit, filed last week in Chariton County, Missouri.
The filing includes a recollection from Coleman in the minutes leading up to and after the train derailed near Mendon, Missouri. Attorneys wrote that Coleman was with a lady and her mother when the mother died from injuries sustained during the derailment.
Coleman’s attorneys sued her employer, Amtrak, over alleged violation of the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, an early 1900s bill specifically passed to protect and compensate “railroaders” injured on the job.
A KSHB 41 News review of legal filings made in connection to June's crash identified at least 12 lawsuits have been filed so far in federal and state court.
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