Some Eastern PalestineOhio residents want more time and more information before a deadline this week they must decide whether to accept their share of the tax bill. $600 Million Class Action Suit Settlement with Norfolk Southern about last year disastrous derailment of a train.
However, it is not yet clear whether the judge will rule on their request before Thursday’s deadline, which will allow people living within 20 miles (32 kilometers) of the derailment to file a claim.
Residents who live within 10 miles of the Feb. 3, 2023, crash near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border must also decide whether to accept a maximum of 10 miles of the Feb. 3, 2023, crash. $25,000 per person for personal injury, although by accepting that money they must later give up the right to sue if someone develops cancer or another serious illness because of exposure to the chemicals.
The amount residents can receive varies depending on how close they live to the derailment. People who live within 2 miles receive $70,000 for property damage. People who live on the outskirts of the area may only receive a few hundred dollars.
One of the main complaints in the motion filed by attorney David Graham is that lawyers representing the residents in the lawsuit failed to disclose the results of tests conducted in the city by their own expert, Stephen Petty. Petty has testified in hundreds of lawsuits over concerns about contamination, seeking to determine the extent of the contamination that resulted when toxic chemicals leaked and burned after the derailment.
Some attorneys involved in the case promised residents in early press interviews that Petty’s records would be made public in court filings to help explain the case. impact on eastern palestineGraham asked the judge to order that information be made public to address residents’ concerns.
“Fast forward to their current, post-settlement posture, and the class counsel and their PR machine have now completely forgotten about their star testing expert, Petty,” Graham wrote.
Instead of Petty, advocates brought forward another expert at an online town hall meeting a few weeks ago who told residents he didn’t think anyone in the city would get cancer as a result of the derailment. But Dr. Arch Carson didn’t make clear what data he relied on for that opinion, other than a brief mention of Environmental Protection Agency testing.
Researchers are studying the health of the area’s residents, monitoring respiratory problems, skin rashes and other ailments According to them, it will take years before it becomes clear what the long-term consequences of the derailment will be.
“I strongly disagree with Dr. Arch Carson — there is no research data to suggest his claim is correct,” said Dr. Erin Haynes, who leads one of the city’s leading studies and chairs the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health at the University of Kentucky College of Public Health.
Graham suggested that the plaintiffs’ attorneys may have been more interested in collecting their $180 million in legal fees than in representing the interests of residents.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys did not immediately respond to the motion Monday, but they have previously defended the arrangement announced in the spring. They have said the settlement is larger than any previous derailment settlement that has been made public, and that the amount of time residents were given to evaluate the deal is comparable to other settlements.
Some residents have complained that the original deadline to opt out of the lawsuit came less than a week after a meeting of the National Transportation Safety Board. hearing on her findings in the research.
