Settlement in Seneca train-crossing accident

Records in the Oconee Common Pleas Court indicate a pre-trial settlement has been entered in a two-year old lawsuit that arose from a 2016 accident in which a train hit a tractor-trailer at Seneca’s East Main Street crossing.  Mediator James Jolly conducted an alternative dispute proceeding for the parties.  The plaintiff, Norfolk Southern Railway, motioned for a judgment in its favor against the tractor-trailer owner and its driver.  Details of the settlement were not included in the mediator’s filing with the Common Pleas Court.  In the pleadings, Norfolk Southern sought damages for its locomotive, track, crossing and warning devices and claimed those damages occurred when the tractor-trailer stopped or parked illegally on the crossing tracks.  It claimed driver Andrew Martin Torres ignored properly sounded warnings and failed to move the tractor-trailer and yield the right-of-way to the train.