Lawsuit filed with Empire Builder over deaths of Georgia couple

NTSB Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg, investigator John Manutes and lead investigator Jim Southworth at the scene of the Empire Builder derailment in 2021. A lawsuit was filed Monday alleging two deaths in the accident. (NTSB)

CHICAGO — The family of a Georgia couple who died in the Empire Builder derailment near Joplin, Mont. last year — during a trip celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary — filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court Monday, alleging that Amtrak and BNSF were responsible for the fatal accident.

The lawsuit was filed by a Philadelphia-based law firm on behalf of the family of Donald and Marjorie Varnadoe, who were killed in the September 25, 2021 derailment [see “Victims identified in ‘Empire Builder’ derailment,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 27, 2021]who is also representing the family of the other fatality in the accident, 28-year-old Zach Schneider of Fairview Heights, Illinois.

Attorney Jeffrey P. Goodman of the Saltz Mongeluzzi & Bendesky law firm claimed in a press release that the scene of the accident “has a history of over 40 years of derailments” and that “Amtrak and BNSF have not learned from the lessons of the pass.”

A Chicago-area law firm has previously filed a number of lawsuits related to the derailment and indicated it will seek to nullify the arbitration clause included in Amtrak tickets [see “Chicago firm files four more suits …,” News Wire, Oct. 8, 2021].