An $11 million settlement was approved in two wrongful death lawsuits arising from the 2005 Metra derailment in Chicago that killed two women and injured 117 other passengers.
According to reports, on Sept. 17, 2005, a five-car Rock Island Line Metra train heading from Joliet to downtown Chicago derailed at a South Side track crossover, where the maximum allowable speed was ten miles per hour. The train was traveling at 69 miles per hour and twisted off the rails and skidded, which forced the fourth and fifth cars to break away. The two passengers who died were riding in the fourth car, which crashed into a steel bridge.
The National Transportation Safety Board blamed the Metra engineer's failure to heed a crucial signal and the commuter rail agency's lack of a system to override human error as key reasons for the derailment.
