A Norfolk Southern Corp. freight train sits parked during a crew change in Burnside, Kentucky, U.S., on Friday, Oct. 17, 2014.
Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images The wife of a Norfolk Southern employee killed late last year in a railway accident in Bessemer, Alabama, has sued the embattled rail giant for negligence that resulted in his wrongful death.Walter James Griffin III, 43, was working as a conductor trainee along with a conductor inside the cab of a Norfolk Southern train on Dec.
13, 2022, when a metal beam protruding from the car of another train crashed through the window, striking them both. Griffin was killed while the conductor was seriously injured.A preliminary investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found that the train on which Griffin and the conductor were traveling passed a stationary train on an adjacent track, and an angle iron that had been welded to a gondola car hooked to the other train had broken loose.
The hanging, broken angle iron pierced the left front-door window of the train in which Griffin was riding.The CEO of Norfolk Southern testified before Congress.