EAST ST. LOUIS — A former CSX engineer claims he suffered injuries when he was thrown from a locomotive seat after hitting a defective portion of a railway track.
Dustin R. Griffith filed a complaint Nov. 9 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois against CSX Transportation Inc., alleging negligence.
According to the complaint, Griffith was employed by CSX as an engineer. He alleges that on May 22, 2020, the locomotive he was riding on hit a segment of defective track, which caused him to be "violently" thrown from the engineer's seat.
Griffith claims that as a result of the incident, he suffered permanent injuries to his muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves, spine and other parts of his body. He also claims he suffered loss of earning capacity and incurred medical expenses.
Griffith alleges CSX was negligent for allowing the use of the locomotive when it had a defective seat and suspension system, failing to perform a daily inspection on the locomotive, failing to provide the plaintiff with a safe place and failing to warn him of the defect. He further alleges CSX violated several federal regulations by failing to inspect the track and allowed "unsafe practices to become the common place."
Griffith seeks compensation of more than $75,000, interest and all other just relief. He is represented by John Kujawski, Harlan Harla and Patrick Sullivan of Kujawski & Associates LLC in O'Fallon.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois case number 3:21-CV-01401