Train Crash Survivors Present Claims To LA Judge

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles judge has begun hearing testimony from survivors of a disastrous passenger train crash in 2008 that claimed the lives of 25 people and injured 100.

Superior Court Judge Peter Lichtman has estimated it will take about two months to hear all the testimony and reach a decision on how to allocate a $200 million settlement.

The first person to testify Friday, Norman Nicholson, said he was one of the least seriously injured and, as a result, became a rescuer of others. His lawyer suggested he should receive between $200,000 and $300,000 for injuries and emotional distress.

The trains slammed together in the Chatsworth section of the San Fernando Valley after the passenger train went through a red signal. Investigators believe the train's engineer, who was killed in the crash, was sending text messages at the time.

The settlement was reached last August by Southern California's Metrolink commuter train system and its former contractor, Connex Railroad, both of which accepted liability for the collision.

Lichtman, who oversaw complex settlements won by people who claimed sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego dioceses, will evaluate what the claims are worth and decide how much each claimant gets after hearing from all of them, said Paul Kiesel, coordinating counsel for all the claimants.

"The judge is going to listen to each and every case and make an award of damages based on evidence presented on the nature and extent of injury," Kiesel said.

When he allocated a nearly $200 million settlement to victims of abuse by priests from the Diocese of San Diego in 2007, Lichtman wrote that he wanted to award more money based on the severity of the cases but there wasn't enough money to compensate them all. That's because the diocese, which had filed for bankruptcy protection before the settlement agreement, couldn't pay more.

Lichtman faces a similar issue because the $200 million settlement fund for victims of the train crash, which is the largest of its kind for a passenger train wreck, is the maximum
allowed under federal law. Congress set the liability cap in 1997 to help keep passenger train systems such as Amtrak operating when faced with major lawsuits.

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