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MADISON - ST. CLAIR RECORD

Friday, March 29, 2024

Second suit filed over Kentucky train derailment

Another suit has been filed in St. Clair County over a train derailment that occurred last year near West Point, Ken.

Clean up worker Gregory Powers is suing multiple companies that he blames for causing his injuries during an explosion that occurred while he was attempting to clean the site of the derailment.

Powers claims defendant CSX Transportation had hired him and others from the RJ Corman Railroad Group crew to clean the site of a derailment that had occurred Oct. 29 near Dixie Highway and Highway 44. Some of the derailed cars contained hazardous chemicals, including butadiene, according to the complaint filed Feb. 20 in St. Clair County Circuit Court.

On Oct. 31, Powers had been instructed to detach two cars that were leaking butadiene, the suit states. He had been instructed to utilize an acetylene cutting torch, the complaint says. Suddenly, when the
torch was lit, an explosion blasted through the air, Powers claims.

In turn, Powers sustained permanent injuries, according to the complaint.

He blames CSX, P&L Transportation and Four Rivers Transportation, which contracted with RJ Corman to clean up, for causing his injuries, saying it authorized the use of the torch, instructed the crew to use the torch in an area that was not safe for fires, failed to adequately monitor the atmosphere for hazardous gases and failed to designate a person to determine that it was okay to utilize fire at the scene, among other negligent acts.

Powers also names the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health and Paducah and Louisville Railway as a defendant, saying it negligently authorized hot work, issued a permit for hot work despite
the presence of known explosives, failed to adequately monitor the air for the presence of hazardous gases, failed to determine that it was appropriate to perform hot work and failed to make an adequate
risk assessment of performing hot work.

In his complaint, Powers seeks a judgment of more than $250,000.

Robert A. Clifford, Kevin P. Durkin and Colin H. Dunn of Clifford Law Offices in Chicago and Brad L. Badgley of Belleville will be representing him.

The same lawyers filed suit on behalf of another injured clean up worker, Leonard Anthony Carrillo, on the same day in St. Clair County.

St. Clair County Circuit Court case number: 13-L-90.

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