Veolia Representatives Fail to Meet With Metrolink Crash Victims

About 50 victims of the Sept. 12, 2008 Chatsworth Metrolink train crash, their families and representatives gathered at the Ventura County Government Center Tuesday for a meeting they had scheduled with French conglomerate Veolia Transportation.

Noticeably missing was any representative of Veolia.

Veolia owns Connex Railroad, the company Metrolink contracted to manage their trains' crews and which employed train engineer Robert Sanchez, who federal investigators found to have been texting while operating the train and thus failing to stop the train at a red light. The accident took the lives of 24 people and caused another 101 to be injured.

In a not uncommon move, according to the victims, Veolia personnel canceled with them the morning of the meeting.

“I think he (Alan Moldawer, executive vice president and general counsel for Veolia) thinks he can wear people down and figures we'll eventually go away” said John Ebert, a crash survivor. “But by doing this repeatedly, he's getting us angrier and angrier. We are not going away—not just for us. This could happen on a much bigger scale.”

As attendees went around the room introducing themselves, they voiced that this wasn't the first time Veolia representatives had fallen through on meeting with them. Mackenzie Souser, who was 12 when her father, Doyle Souser, died in the crash, shared a letter from the company offering to meet with her and her mother, Claudia Souser, in October. After receiving the letter, the Sousers never heard from them again, they said.

“We all changed our plans to come here and I think it's kind of rude that they didn't show up,” Mackenzie said. “They wrote me a letter that said they would come and see me and they haven't and I just think if someone says they're going to come and meet with me and talk and stuff, they should probably do it, especially if we have it in writing.”

The group, which holds Veolia culpable for the accident, had hoped to discuss the company compensating the victims an additional $150 million over the $200 million liability cap provided for by federal law, bringing the total compensation up to the original $350 million requested by the 122 families and individuals who were awarded compensation in a legal decision made in July.

Joining in on the request is local taxpayer watchdog group, the Ventura County Taxpayers Association. The Taxpayers Association has expressed concern that because the medical and other victim costs go well above the $200 million cap amount, the financial costs will fall on the taxpayers as they become the burden of the federal, state and local governments.

Veolia offices were closed and personnel were unavailable for comment by the time the meeting was over; however Patch will update this story with their comments as they are available.