The widow of a man killed when the truck he was driving was hit by an Amtrak train this week has filed a wrongful death lawsuit.
this week has filed a wrongful death lawsuit. In the suit, Erin Barton alleges that the Missouri railroad crossing where Billy Dean Barton II died was"ultra-hazardous," due in part to the defendants' failures to maintain the intersection.
"These conditions at the crossing created an ultra-hazardous crossing," the suit says, adding that the conditions had been like that for years. On June 27, these failures culminated in the fatal collision and derailment, the lawsuit alleges. Erin Barton's husband was driving a dump truck through the crossing and"did not see or hear the train coming with adequate warning to safely cross the tracks."
Prior to the crash, residents had reported to the county's road authority several issues at the crossing, the suit said. Therefore, the suit alleges, the county was aware of the problems, and its negligence"caused or directly contributed" to Barton's death. She said the NTSB has been recommending"for a number of years" that passive crossings, like the one near Mendon, be either converted to active ones, closed or consolidated. She also pointed out a 1998 NTSB study which recommended that vehicles have technology that would alert drivers to trains in the area. that it was"deeply saddened" to learn of the deaths, adding that it's cooperating with local authorities.
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