BELLEVILLE - An employee is suing Illinois Central Railroad, claiming exposure to diesel fumes caused him to develop cancer.
Richard Geese filed the complaint in the St. Clair County Circuit Court against Illinois Central Railroad Company, doing business as Canadian National/Illinois Central.
"Plaintiff contracted colorectal cancer that metastasized to other parts of his body," the suit states "Plaintiff has only recently been advised that his disease was wrongly caused by exposures he suffered in his work for Illinois Central."
According to the complaint, Geese worked for the railroad as a conductor, brakeman, and engineer at various locations including, Decatur, East St. Louis and Champaign.
"During and throughout the course of said employment, defendant Illinois Central required Plaintiff to work with, on, in, and around diesel locomotives and other diesel powered
equipment and appurtenances, thereby causing plaintiff to be exposed to, inhale, ingest and otherwise absorb diesel fumes, diesel exhaust and emissions, and other potentially toxic and hazardous substances," the suit states.
Geese claims the railroad either knew or should have known that the fumes were "toxic, poisonous, carcinogenic, and have a deleterious effect on the health of persons exposed."
Geese seeks more than $50,000 in damages from the railroad. He is represented by attorney Myles Epperson of Simmons Hanly Conroy in Alton.
St. Clair County Circuit Court case number 22LA0621