Amtrak 5 incident near Reno NV (CZ California Zephyr)

http://netscape.compuserve.com/news/us/ ... 805/il0607

Amtrak is suing the trucking company. The trucker's defense is that the gate wasn't down, and all evidence that it was down is provided by biased parties.

JimBoylan wrote:http://netscape.compuserve.com/news/us/ ... 805/il0607

Amtrak is suing the trucking company. The trucker's defense is that the gate wasn't down, and all evidence that it was down is provided by biased parties.

Your link isn't working. Here is another one:

Amtrak and trucking company blame each other for '11 crash

Please allow a few fair use quotes:

When a tractor-trailer driver drove north on U.S. 95, about 70 miles east of Reno, on June 24, 2011, he was warned that a rail crossing was ahead and a train was coming toward him, an Amtrak lawyer told jurors during his opening statement in a federal civil trial on Tuesday.

But a John Davis Trucking Co. lawyer said Union Pacific Railroad's warning system was not working properly, causing the driver to not see the train until the final seconds.

A second lawyer said the railroad companies tampered with evidence – a gate arm, video and data equipment – to make it look like the safety system worked when it did not.

"We will never know what Mr. Valli was doing because he unfortunately he passed away," Landman said. "But we do know what he was not doing – looking where he was going."

For that reason, the trucking company is responsible for the damages, he said.

"He wasn't looking, and crashing into our train because he wasn't looking – they're liable for that," Landman said.

To support his argument, Landman showed the three-man, seven-woman jury an 82-second video taken from a camera mounted on the front of the train that captured the truck as it approached the rail crossing. He said the video confirms that the gate crossing was down and the lights were flashing as the truck approached.

The video was sent to the National Transportation Safety Board soon after the crash, he said.

In addition, they plan to call two eyewitnesses who saw the flashing lights and gate arms, proving that the driver was at fault, Landman said. Other truck drivers who travel that route will also be called to testify that a driver can see the train coming "from a long way off," Landman said.

Trucking company lawyer George Kirklin challenged the video's authenticity. He said the video was digitally altered to make it look like the crossing gate was working before a tractor-trailer slammed into the train. If the warning gate was down, how could it still be intact after the crash, Kirklin asked the jury.

"You kept hearing, 'the gate was down. The gate was down,'" Kirklin said, referring to Landman's opening statement. "That means it somehow survived being run through by a 25-ton truck, sustaining no damage."

Kirklin said the video had a time stamp that did not align with the time of the crash. Also, at one point in the video, a band of color running horizontally across the middle of the sky suddenly appears in one frame and then disappears, he said. Another frame suddenly darkens and then is light again, he said.

Digital video experts will testify that the video was altered, he said. Kirklin said they discovered other evidence that allegedly was tampered with after the crash, including the recording device that should have recorded the warning system.

Court decision is in. John Davis Trucking owes Amtrak $4.55 million and owes Union Pacific $210,000.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/09/03/70987.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Unfortunately this might not be over yet. The company has no web presence or website of any sort, which makes it seem like a fly-by-night operation. Who knows if they try some sort of shady re-org or bankruptcy to get out of this $4.5m. Especially if their insurance policy can't doesn't cover that size penalty...

Your prophecy is likely reality, Mr. Dunville.

Last time I checked, an IntERstate motor carrier needed only $500K Public Liability coverage to hold that authority. Intrastate authorities are mandated at each individual State level. If the motor carrier in this instance handled its load under an intrastate authority, then the state level would prevail. However, being the "Wild West', I'll bet that limit might only be the interstate level.

Anyone care to place their bets that tricking concern carried more insurance than required by law? All I know is that you wouldn't catch me behind the wheel of any vehicle with that level of insurance.

JDT is located in Battle Mountain (Arm Pit of America, google it). Amtrak runs through BM and is just east of Winnemucca where the Salt Lake City crew changes out with the Reno/Sparks crew.

Here is some info on JDT:

https://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/SMS/Carrier/15 ... ofile.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.quicktransportsolutions.com/ ... 159572.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

With $4.5 million (assuming they get it) Amtrak might be able to rebuild the fire-damaged snack coach and purchase a replacement bi-level coach using an option from Nippon-Sharyo. But the damaged trans-dorm is gone forever. If only $500k is split between Amtrak and Union Pacific, about all that gets covered is attorney fees and passenger inconvenience.

This is a 1 purpose company that moves material from the mine to processing plant,only runs in the state
of NV(NO Interstate authority,ONLY Intrastate) barely mantains insurance,was on FMCA's radar for close
inspection on compliance issues,might be a "shell" operation of the Mine Company or the processing company.
Has a long record of Equipment Violations to boot. suprised they still have a permit to run "Turnpike Doubles"
(2 bottom dump trailers,48 or 53 foot trailers).

Would not be suprised if JDT goes "Belly-up" or bought out by another company to pay off judgement.

Most of the Major Fleets have multi-million coverage of liabilty and cargo insurances.

An example of "shell" company,First Fleet,is used by Korger "Family" of Food stores across the US,
was at one time apart of Kroger company as an internal transportation dept.
Spun off as Kroger grew from a regional grocer to across the US corpration.

Backshophoss wrote: Would not be suprised if JDT goes "Belly-up" or bought out by another company to pay off judgement.

Most of the Major Fleets have multi-million coverage of liabilty and cargo insurances.

An example of "shell" company,First Fleet,is used by Korger "Family" of Food stores across the US,
was at one time apart of Kroger company as an internal transportation dept.
Spun off as Kroger grew from a regional grocer to across the US corpration.

I wouldn't be surprised if the declared bankruptcy and surfaced under another name.

In my day job, I work with trucks; I just asked one of the usual drivers i know is from Nevada who works for one of the major carriers. He is familar with JDT; said they are not quite a fly-by-night-operation but a bit tight on operational staff. He does know they have an assortment of trailers for everything; he's seen them pull 53 foot trailers.