Police, firefighters and other first responders sign up for inherently dangerous work, but that doesn't give citizens or businesses a blank check to harm them without financial consequences, a federal judge has ruled in the case of a Maryville train derailment.
Chief U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan has turned aside a bid by CSX Transportation Inc. and Union Tank Car Co. to dismiss a class-action lawsuit filed by emergency responders in a July 2015 freight train derailment in Maryville that sent poisonous smoke into the air and more than 100 people to the hospital.
A broken axle on a single rail car hauling 24,000 gallons of a toxic chemical derailed the 57-car train, causing a fire that burned for 19 hours, authorities said.
About 5,000 people in a 2-mile radius in Blount County were forced to evacuate their homes. At least 87 people had to be treated, with 36 admitted to the hospital, and 10 first-responders also required treatment for the effects of exposure to the noxious smoke. A fish kill was later reported, and area wells tested. The rail car was carrying a chemical, acrylonitrile, used in the manufacture of plastics. The substance is considered carcinogenic, and exposure can burn the skin, inflame the lining of the lungs, throat and nose, and cause headaches, nausea and dizziness. Cyanide is a byproduct of burning acrylonitrile.