PHILADELPHIA — An Amtrak passenger is suing the rail company, alleging negligence for injuries she says incurred during a train derailment.
Julie Horowitz filed a lawsuit Feb. 16 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against National Railroad Passenger Corporation, also know as Amtrak, alleging negligence and outrageous conduct.
According to the complaint, Horowitz was a passenger aboard Amtrak Train 188 on May 12, 2015, traveling from Washington D.C. to New York City. After leaving a stop in Philadelphia, the suit says, the train took a sharp curve at a speed in excess of two times the legal speed limit and derailed, flipping over the first car and detaching the engine. The accident killed eight people and injured more than 200.
The lawsuit says several security options were available to Amtrak that it did not utilize and that the operator of the train was behaving in a reckless manner. Horowitz alleges that she was violently thrown about inside the train car during the accident, causing several injuries to her body and mind.
Horowitz seeks compensatory and punitive damages, interest, costs, attorney fees and a trial by jury. She is represented by attorneys Carl J. Luther, Ronald L.M. Goldman, Timothy A. Loranger and Frances M. Phares of Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman in Philadelphia and Los Angeles.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Case number 2:16-cv-00737-LDD