Bell v. Illinois Central Railroad

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

HOLDERMAN, District Judge.

On March 15, 1999, an Amtrak passenger train commonly known as the “City of New Orleans,” while heading southbound outside of Chicago on the Illinois Central Railroad line, collided with a semi-tractor trailer truck driven by defendant John Stokes and derailed in Bourbonnais, Illinois. At the time of the crash, the Amtrak train was powered by defendant General Electric’s Genesis Locomotive. The derailment resulted in passenger injuries and fatalities. Some of the victims (hereinafter “plaintiffs” or “the state court plaintiffs”) sued a…