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National Railroad Passenger Corporation and Subsidiaries (Amtrak)
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)
1509-1694994 62
13. Subsequent Events (continued)
The curve’ s track speed was 50 mph. The National Transportation Safety Board’ s (NTSB’ s)
preliminary analysis determined that the train was traveling 106 mph when the engineer applied
the train’ s emergency brakes moments before the derailment. The NTSB has found no evidence
of mechanical, track, or signal system issues. The NTSB’ s investigation is ongoing, and Amtrak
anticipates its final report in approximately one year from the date of the derailment.
As of October 1, 2015, there are 65 lawsuits pending: three filed by employees and 62 filed by
passengers (including the estates of eight deceased passengers), with a total of 75 passengers
named as plaintiffs in those 62 passenger lawsuits. Amtrak continues to move passenger cases
filed in state courts to federal courts and seeks to transfer those filed outside of Pennsylvania to
the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania sitting in Philadelphia.
Several plaintiffs have joined in filing a motion for transfer to federal court in Philadelphia for
coordinated or consolidated proceedings, and to transfer all subsequently filed actions arising out
of the derailment to that court for inclusion in a Multi-District Litigation proceeding. The
Company’ s current estimate of liability for passenger claims is $163.9 million. The on-duty
employee claims and lawsuits are governed by the Federal Employers Liability Act which sets
the negligence threshold, allows for compensatory damages but no punitive damages and has no
limit on recoveries from a single incident. The Company’ s current estimate of liability for on-
duty employee claims is $9.3 million. Total passenger and/or on-duty employee claim liabilities
in excess of $20.0 million are expected to be covered by insurance. Amtrak is not contesting
liability for compensatory damages in these cases.
In addition, Amtrak suffered property damage in the incident. Amtrak is still assessing the extent
of the damages but the financial impact of the damages will be capped at Amtrak’ s $10.0 million
property insurance deductible. Any amounts in excess of $10.0 million are expected to be
covered by insurance.
Insurance Ruling
On June 24, 2015, a judge for the United States District Court, Southern District of New York
issued a ruling that limited the recoverable losses related to Sandy that Amtrak could seek in a
suit involving its insurance providers (see Note 10).
KCT PTC Settlement
On August 7, 2015, Amtrak and KCT settled a dispute related to payment for costs incurred by
KCT in connection with KCT’ s implementation of PTC on KCT’ s lines (see Note 10).