Amtrak Derailment Victims to Get $16.75 Million, Law Firm Says

(Bloomberg) -- A jury has awarded three plaintiffs injured in a 2017 Amtrak derailment outside DuPont, Washington a total of $16.75 million in damages, Luvera Law Firm said in a statement Friday.

The plaintiffs, Dale Skyllingstad, Blaine Wilmotte and Madison Wilmotte, are the first group of victims to take the railway carrier to trial for the incident that killed three men and injured more than 60 people on the road below the track.

Skyllingstad was awarded $7.75 million, Wilmotte was awarded $7 million and Madison Wilmotte received $2 million.

Luvera Law Firm in Seattle and co-counsel Clifford Law Offices based in Chicago represented the plaintiffs.

Skyllingstad was a passenger on the train and suffered a brain injury, among other injuries, from the derailment. Wilmotte was crushed when a train car fell from an overpass and landed on the truck he was traveling in, trapping him for 90 minutes, the release said, citing court documents. Wilmotte and his wife sought damages for the ongoing impact of his trauma.

The National Transportation Safety Board in a May report concluded that at the time of the crash, the Amtrak passenger train was traveling at nearly 80 miles per hour around a curve that called for a maximum speed of 30 miles per hour.

Luvera Law Firm and Clifford Law Offices represent more than 30 other plaintiffs seeking damages stemming from the derailment. Cases also will be heard in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, the statement said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Natnicha Chuwiruch in Bangkok at nchuwiruch@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Andreea Papuc, Paul Jackson

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