Jury awards $8M to woman in 2017 Amtrak train derailment

TACOMA, Wash. — A federal jury in Tacoma has awarded $8 million in damages to a woman hurt in the 2017 Amtrak train derailment that spilled passenger cars onto Interstate 5 and killed three people.

According to court documents, the jury found in favor of Emily Torjusen Monday after a four-day trial.

Documents say Torjusen was traveling from Seattle to Vancouver and was a passenger in the seventh car behind the engine on the train’s inaugural run on its rebuilt Point Defiance Bypass route when the train derailed at high speed near DuPont.

The National Transportation Safety Board said multiple failures contributed to the crash, but placed primary blame on Sound Transit.

Amtrak has paid more than $46 million connected to the derailment.

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