Family of Johnson County woman killed in Amtrak crash file wrongful death suit

Family members of a suburban Kansas City woman who was among the three passengers killed in an Amtrak train crash last month near Mendon, Missouri, have filed a lawsuit seeking damages in connection with her death.

Rachelle Cook, 57, was riding the Amtrak toward Chicago on the afternoon of June 27 when the train collided with a dump truck at an unguarded rail crossing. She and three others, including the truck driver, were killed and roughly 150 were injured.

Named as defendants in the lawsuit are BNSF Railway, the company that owns and maintains the train tracks, a BNSF safety official and MS Contracting, which operated the truck involved in the crash.

Lawyers for the family wrote in a civil petition that the crossing where the crash occurred was unsafe, alleging officials responsible for railway traffic neglected to address a long history of concern.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Chariton County Circuit Court. Two of the family members listed as plaintiffs, Pauline Magin and Tiffany Powers, were on the train with Cook and another relative, Kim Holsapple, 56, who also died in the crash, The Star previously reported. The four were planning to visit Chicago for a weekend girls’ trip, according to an online fundraiser.

In a statement Wednesday, Michael Kuckelman said the family did not wish to make public comments as they were grieving the loss of loved ones.

The lawsuit alleges the railroad crossing was inherently dangerous, saying the steepness of the road poses a safety hazard because the sight lines are obstructed for passing motorists. Other conditions along the track, including unkempt vegetation growing alongside, was poorly maintained and compounded that issue, the lawsuit says.

“Based on the long history of complaints, and based on basic safety practices, BNSF knew or should have known that the subject crossing posed an unreasonable danger to the public, particularly since passenger trains, trains hauling hazardous materials, and slow-moving farm equipment and industrial vehicles frequently traversed the crossing,” lawyers wrote in the complaint.

The lawsuit also seeks to hold MS Contracting, the Missouri-based contracting company that operated the dump truck involved in the collision, liable for damages.

The lawsuit is among the first wave of expected litigation targeting BNSF Railway and Amtrak by passengers injured in the crash. The wife of Billy Barton II, the truck driver who was killed, is also suing BNSF and MS Contracting, the Missouri-based company her husband worked for, over his death.

Meanwhile, Amtrak and BNSF have filed a lawsuit blaming the trucking company for causing the crash. In that case, lawyers for the companies said the driver passed the crossing in an unsafe manner, saying the company and driver are responsible.