Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.
Chatsworth crash survivors, victims learn their share of $200 million settlement
Listen
Rescue crews use heavy equipment to dismantle the damaged trains and continue to search for survivors at the site of a train crash on Sept. 13, 2008 in Chatsworth, Calif.
(
Ringo Chiu/Getty Images
)
Almost three years after that deadly Metrolink train crash in Chatsworth, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge has announced how he’ll divide a $200 million settlement.
Judge Peter Lichtman spent three months hearing from 122 people injured or related to someone killed in the crash. He awarded damages that ranged from $12,000 to $9 million. Attorney Paul Kiesel, who represents some of the plaintiffs, said one of his clients was in law school at the time of the crash but suffered a brain injury that likely ended her hopes of becoming a lawyer.
"Her economic damages were $2.5 million, and her recovery is $400,000. That puts a real -life perspective on what the Court needed to do," he said.
The court needed to do that because of a federal law that caps the damages for train accidents at $200 million. In his ruling, Judge Lichtman wrote that the cap forced him to make some impossible decisions. The money, he explained, was at least $64 million short of the damages he wanted to award.
Support for LAist comes from
"The first best hope is that the company does the responsible thing and puts up $64 million to actually compensate those that suffered losses here," Kiesel said.
The company is Veolia Transportation, who employed the engineer found to be sending text messages when a Metrolink commuter train ran a stop signal and slammed into a Union Pacific freight train. Veolia has agreed to pay the $200 million, and in a statement, said the amount is the largest financial recovery in the history of passenger rail and exceeds the amounts paid to victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.
No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.
Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.
Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.
Chip in now to fund your local journalism
(
LAist
)
Trending on LAist
-
With less to prove than LA, the city is becoming a center of impressive culinary creativity. -
Nearly 470 sections of guardrailing were stolen in the last fiscal year in L.A. and Ventura counties.
-
With California voters facing a decision on redistricting this November, Surf City is poised to join the brewing battle over Congressional voting districts.
-
The drug dealer, the last of five defendants to plead guilty to federal charges linked to the 'Friends' actor’s death, will face a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison.
-
The weather’s been a little different lately, with humidity, isolated rain and wind gusts throughout much of Southern California. What’s causing the late-summer bout of gray?
-
Hexavalent chromium is the same carcinogen Erin Brockovich warned about in the 1990s, but researchers say more study is needed on the potential health effects of nanoparticles detected earlier this year. Experts will answer questions at a webinar this evening.
Best of LAist