Two Killed at Wis. Rail Crossing

October 3, 2000     

A car drove past flashing lights and alarm bells into the path of a freight train at an ungated crossing, killing two teen-age girls. Another teen was seriously injured, but two others were not hurt.

``The lights were operating. The bell was going. The train's whistle was very functional. We don't know why they crossed the front of the train,'' police Capt. John Koser said Monday.

There was no evidence alcohol was a factor, he said. Investigators were trying to determine if late-afternoon sun glare may have obscured the driver's view of the flashing red lights.

The five young women in the car involved in Saturday's collision with a Wisconsin Central train were visiting nearby St. Norbert College, where one is a freshman, Koser said.
CSX Loses 50 Million Dollar Appeal

The Supreme Court, rejecting a railroad's appeal, let stand a $50 million award won by the heirs of a Florida man killed in a train derailment in South Carolina nine years ago.

The justices, acting without comment Monday, turned away CSX Transportation Inc. arguments that a state court's award - punishing the railroad for not maintaining a track switch.

Paul Palank was killed when an Amtrak train traveling from Miami to the District of Columbia derailed in Lugoff, S.C., on July 31, 1991. Eight passengers were killed; 90 passengers and crew members were injured.

The accident was caused by a switch that malfunctioned when the train passed over it. CSX did not contest its liability for damages to compensate for the relatives' loss, so trial of the lawsuit was divided into three parts _ to set the amount of compensatory damages, to determine whether CSX should pay punitive damages and, if so, what amount.

In the trial's first phase, lawyers for Mrs. Palank presented evidence of CSX's reductions in maintenance-of-way employees nationwide between 1981 and 1993 _ reductions they said saved the railroad $2.4 billion over 10 years. They blamed the accident on the railroad's downsizing.

A jury ordered the railroad to pay $6 million in compensatory damages. Then a different jury ruled that CSX was liable for punitive damages _ aimed at punishing past acts and deterring future misconduct _ and set that amount at $50 million.

A state appeals court upheld that amount, and the Florida Supreme Court refused to hear CSX's appeal.

In seeking help from the nation's highest court, the railroad did not challenge the $6 million compensatory award. But it contended that the $50 million award amounted to Florida punishing CSX ``for lawful personnel reductions in other states.''