Jacksonville, FL — An Orange Park woman is suing CSX and Amtrak over what she believes to be the wrongful death of her husband.
Michael Cella was the conductor on the passenger train that collided with a parked freight train in South Carolina earlier this week. One other man died and more than 100 people were hurt in the incident.
The lawsuit filed in Duval County says both companies were negligent in managing and supervising railroad operations in a number of areas, including training, communicating with the crew, ensuring safe working conditions and more.
The complaint says the Amtrak passenger train was “improperly and unexpectedly diverted” off the main track to a side track, because a mainline switch was “carelessly, negligently and recklessly misaligned and locked in the reverse position”. A CSX freight train was parked on that side track, and the passenger train ultimately crashed in to it.
Further, the complaint says track side signals were disabled at the time of the collision, leaving the crew without some warnings, including an indicator of the switch position. Instead, the complaint says Cella and the crew had to rely on communication from the companies
This appears to reflect some of what the NTSB has revealed as they undertake an investigation in to this incident. The NTSB has said they're working to determine why the switch was in the wrong position. They further confirmed that some signals were down, because new safety systems were being installed in that area at the time of the collision.
Cella’s wife specifically claims CSX was negligent in disabling the signals, failing to restore the switch to its proper position or check to ensure it was, failing to adequately communicate with Cella, failing to train employees sufficiently, and more. They’re alleging fault by Amtrak in failing to provide a safe work place and track facilities, failing to warn Cella about the switch or condition of the signals, failing to take precautionary measures, and more.
WOKV reached out to both Amtrak and CSX, but neither are commenting because of the pending litigation.