Injured parents and children file lawsuit against Kentucky zoo after train ride crash.
Louisville, KY(JusticeNewsFlash.com)–The Louisville Zoo was named by personal injury lawyers in two lawsuits after a miniature train derailment on June 1st, 2009. According to Jefferson Circuit Court documents, an 18 year-old zoo train operator, which is the minimum age to operate the zoo’s train, was engineering the rail cars when the derailment and crash occurred. Of the thirty passengers on board, twenty-two innocent victims were injured in the June mini train derailment. According to the courier-journal.com, some of the passengers aboard the zoo train claimed the park equipment was swiftly traveling around a railroad curve, behind the zoo’s Gorilla Forest exhibit,when it derailed and flipped onto its side. Of the twenty-two individuals injured in the train accident, seventeen of them were children. The seventeen injured kids were transported by Jefferson County area ambulance crews to Kosair Children’s Hospital, where fifteen of them were treated for their train accident injuries and released. The five adult passengers, injured in the crash, were transported by Louisville area emergency medical services (EMS) personnel to the University of Louisville Hospital where they were admitted for their serious injuries.
The first of the lawsuits came from the Bamforth family of Charlestown, Indiana who took their case to the Jefferson Circuit Court in Louisville on Wednesday, June 9th as reported by Wave3, MSNBC affiliate. Kentucky personal injury attorneys filed the claims for the injured families seeking both monetary damages and a restraining order to stop the zoo from altering the scene after the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA) finished their investigation.
Five other families, composed of twelve individuals, also retained legal counsel and filed a lawsuit against the zoo citing injuries involving the derailment. Louisville personal injury lawyers allege the speed of the train seemed abnormally fast for a zoo attraction especially one transporting children. According to zoo officials, the 18-year old, train driver started her training the day before the serious zoo accident and was barely certified on June 1st, the day of the terrible incident. Currently, the cause of the train derailment is still under investigation.
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