Three years after a Norfolk Southern train derailed, injuring two employees, the rail company is taking the owners of a Richland County pasta facility to federal court.
In a lawsuit filed July 1, Norfolk Southern alleges that American Italian Pasta Company and its former parent company Treehouse Foods are at fault for the crash that day, arguing it resulted from their own train derailing too close to Norfolk Southern’s track. The railway says those two companies should be on the hook for damages.
What happened on July 11, 2022?
The derailment happened just outside of an American Italian Pasta Company facility near Shop Road, which has a rail connection to a Norfolk Southern main line.
According to lawsuits brought by Norfolk Southern and Raymond Rightmier, one of two employees injured in the crash, Enrico Blanchett, a pasta company employee, was moving a train with six cars using a remote control. The train was within the facility’s own tracks, but it soon began to roll towards the Norfolk Southern main line after Blanchett lost control…