A wrongful death lawsuit over the Amtrak derailment in rural Montana over the weekend has been filed.
The Washington Post reports the lawsuit was filed in a Chicago federal court on Tuesday on behalf of the family of Rebecca Schneider and her husband Zach Schneider.
Zach Schneider, a software engineer from Illinois, was among three people who died when eight of the 10 train cars derailed Saturday afternoon near Joplin along Montana’s Hi-Line. His wife Rebecca was injured in the crash but survived.
The lawsuit names Amtrak and the track owner BNSF Railway. It was filed by a Philadelphia law firm in Chicago where the train en route to Seattle originated.
The lawsuit alleges Zach Schneider died as a result of a “preventable tragedy.”
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the derailment. An NTSB spokesperson said there is no new information on the derailment.
