Jury awards millions to woman injured in Amtrak derailment. Here’s what happened
A federal jury awarded $8 million this week to a woman injured in the 2017 Amtrak derailment near DuPont.
Emily Torjusen is one of the passengers who sued Amtrak following the wreck. The train crashed onto Interstate 5 below, killing three and injuring dozens.
The trial in Torjusen’s case started March 29 in U.S. District Court in Tacoma. Jurors began deliberating Friday afternoon and returned the verdict Monday afternoon.
A spokesperson said Amtrak did not have any comment Tuesday.
Anthony Petru, one of the attorneys who represented Torjusen, said by email Tuesday that the question at the core of the case was: “whether a jury would appreciate the significant life altering changes that PTSD and an MTBI (Mild Traumatic Brain Injury - Post Concussion Syndrome) can have on a woman who fights the symptoms and is able to succeed academically and vocationally.”
Petru wrote that Amtrak focused on Torjusen’s abilities, and not the effort her accomplishments have required since the derailment.
“Many successful people have emotional or cognitive issues,” Petru wrote. “Since those issues are hidden, Amtrak assumed that the jury would ignore the clear evidence of what Emily has to do internally to manage her daily existence. The jury got it. I attribute this to the growing appreciation and empathy the public has for these hidden psychological obstacles many struggle with daily.”
Torjusen, 24, boarded Amtrak Cascades 501 on Dec. 18, 2017, to go home for the holidays while she was a student at the University of Washington, according to court records.
The train was traveling from Seattle to Vancouver, Washington. It was the inaugural run on the Point Defiance Bypass route along Interstate 5, instead of the old route along the Tacoma waterfront.
Torjusen was in the seventh car, looking at her phone, according to court records, when the car left the tracks and landed on its side. She lost consciousness.
‘Lifelong consequences’
A National Transportation Safety Board report said the engineer lost track of where he was on the route and was going more than twice the speed limit. Amtrak should have trained the engineer better, and technology that slows down trains that are going too fast should have been installed, the NTSB reported. That technology has since been put in place.
“When PTSD and an MTBI are caused by the wrongdoing of an entity, that entity must be held responsible,” Petru wrote. “The jury did their job. However, Emily will continue to have to do her best to manage the lifelong consequences of Amtrak’s negligence.”
Various other lawsuits were filed against Amtrak by those on the train, The News Tribune reported. In one case a jury awarded almost $17 million to several plaintiffs.
A lawsuit filed by the engineer is scheduled for trial in Pierce County Superior Court later this year, according to court records.
A judge already ruled that Amtrak is strictly liable, which the engineer’s attorney previously said means the trial will be to determine damages.
The engineer’s lawsuit alleged he wasn’t properly trained and that technology that could have stopped the train hadn’t been installed.
Amtrak resumed service on the Point Defiance Bypass route in November, with new safety controls and training, The News Tribune reported.
This story was originally published April 5, 2022 at 2:43 PM.
