WASHINGTON — The estate of a Montgomery County man who was killed when a passenger train derailed in Philadelphia is suing Amtrak, arguing the national rail service was negligent and recklessly endangered the lives of all 238 people on board.
The suit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, was filed on behalf of the surviving family members of Abid Gilani, who was one of eight passengers killed when train 188 derailed as it approached a sharp curve traveling 106 mph. The posted speed limit for the curve is just 50 mph.
Gilani was a senior vice-president for Wells Fargo and boarded the New York-bound train at Union Station in D.C. His family owns a home in Rockville, but his wife had been living in California to be closer to the couple’s college-age children.
The suit accuses Amtrak of knowing the dangers of the curve, which was the site of another fatal derailment in 1943. The suit also says that Amtrak failed to use available safety technologies including Positive Train Control, which Amtrak has said would be in place by the end of the year.
The technology was installed on the tracks where the accident occurred, but it had not been turned on because further testing was needed. A federal law requires that Amtrak, fright and commuter railroads install Positive Train Control by the end of this year, the Associated Press has reported.
Automated Train Control, which manually slows trains, was also not installed along the northbound stretch of track, although it was in use along the southbound tracks, the suit states.
Gilani’s family also accuses Amtrak of not implementing such safety improvements in order to save money, and that it “intentionally” failed to make recommended improvements that would have made “its trains safe for passengers.”
The suit seeks more than $300,000 in damages.
