Metrolink: Operator Shirking Crash Responsibility

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Metrolink officials say the agency's train operator during 2008's deadly commuter train crash in Los Angeles is shirking responsibility for the accident by refusing to add more money to a $200 million victim's compensation fund.

The Ventura County Star quotes Metrolink's chairman and its CEO as writing this month to California's U.S. senators that French conglomerate Veolia Environment was ignoring facts from a federal investigation into the crash that killed 24 people.

A Veolia subsidiary employed the engineer who was texting when the commuter train hit a freight train.

Metrolink says its insurance policy made up $150 million of the compensation even though it did not have to cover damages caused by willful misconduct by Veolia's engineer.

Veolia insists Metrolink was contractually obligated to pay crash damages.

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