Conrail hit with another suit in Paulsboro derailment

Having grown up on the banks of the Mantua Creek in Paulsboro, Walter Stevenson, 77, is accustomed to the ever-present, faintly acrid smell from a nearby refinery, and the occasional rumbling and squealing of trains as they move across the Conrail bridge just beyond his yard.

Which is why at first he didn't pay much attention to the clatter Nov. 30, the morning a tanker train derailed, dumping cars into the creek where he often swam as a boy.

"You get so used to it," he said.

But that morning, when he looked out his window, he saw something different.

"There was this haze," he said.

Again, that wasn't unusual, living next to the water. "But that time, the sun was shining and it was clear, so that was a little odd," he said.

Stevenson, who had just gotten out of bed, had woken up to a disaster.

The haze was a cloud of vinyl chloride gas spewed when a tanker containing 23,000 gallons of the liquefied chemical was breached when it derailed.

When he looked out his kitchen window, with its bridge view, there were three rail cars in the creek and a fourth hanging perilously off the bridge.

Other cars had fallen into his son's yard, directly adjacent to the bridge.

On Friday, Stevenson; his wife, Irma, 73; and 110 other residents of Paulsboro and surrounding communities filed a lawsuit in Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia, where Conrail has its headquarters.

The suit is yet another in a series filed against Conrail and its parent companies, Norfolk Southern Corp. and CSX Corp., among others.

"We will respond to the allegations in this lawsuit at an appropriate time and through our legal filings," said Michael Hotra, a spokesman for Conrail.

Investigators have determined that the freight train crossed the automated drawbridge against a red light after the crew got the go-ahead from a dispatcher. They said the swing bridge, built in 1873 and the scene of a similar 2009 derailment, was not locked in place.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.

The suit filed Friday said Conrail knew the bridge was defective, yet did not act on it. It seeks unspecified damages and medical monitoring and care.

Among the plaintiffs are Kyle Spears, an East Greenwich Township police officer, and other first responders, who say Conrail officials on the scene didn't advise them to wear protective equipment. The suit also lists 18 children as plaintiffs.

Standing in her kitchen Friday, Irma Stevenson, a nurse who described herself as "Mrs. Paulsboro," said what she wanted out of the lawsuit was for Conrail to admit there is a problem "and to be truthful to the people of Paulsboro."

Having grown up in Paulsboro, she said, she has no desire to move, and besides, "nobody is coming into Paulsboro to buy houses."

Another plaintiff, who lives nearby, said her concern was for her children, who were also named as plaintiffs.

"As a parent, I was really fearing the worst," said Cassandra Clark, 44. Her daughter, 12, was en route to school with her grandfather when the fog enveloped them. Her son, Samuel, 7, who was awaiting a ride to his school, was immediately sickened and insisted on returning home.

"What's going to happen years later?" she said. "I'm really concerned that my children are going to be OK, that they are going to have that longevity."

The suit asks Conrail to provide long-term monitoring for a host of conditions, including cancer.

One of the lawyers in Friday's filing deflected questions about the plaintiffs' current state of health.

Conrail has offered residents immediate cash settlements if they waive their right to sue and agree to ask Conrail to provide medical monitoring.

Filing Friday's suit were attorneys Aaron J. Freiwald and Joseph Marano of Layser & Freiwald P.C., in Philadelphia, and Scott C. McKinley of Hoffman, Dimuzio in Franklinville.

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