Amtrak — typical American capitalism?

© 2019 Peter Free

 

13 November 2019

 

 

If we kill or maim you, too bad for you

 

Amtrak — which (figuratively) can barely keep even some of its trains from crashing off the rails — is forcing train-riders into waiving their right to court. Should Amtrak kill, maim or otherwise painfully inconvenience them:

 

 

A change to the so-called “Arbitration Clause” buried deep within Amtrak’s “Terms and Conditions” for ticket sales that stipulates mandatory arbitration— effectively, preventing passengers from filing lawsuits against Amtrak[:]

 

 

“including, but not limited to, claims for negligence, gross negligence, physical impairment, disfigurement, pain and suffering, mental anguish, wrongful death, survival actions, loss of consortium and/or services, medical and hospital expenses, expenses of transportation for medical treatment, expenses of drugs and medical appliances, emotional distress, exemplary or punitive damages arising out of or related to any personal injury[.]"

 

 

The modification to the clause occurred earlier this year, closely following a $265 million court settlement resulting from Amtrak’s May 12, 2015 Frankford Junction overspeed derailment in Philadelphia . . . in which eight people died and 238 were injured.

 

The clause received almost no attention until Nov. 8, when Politico broke the story.

 

[B]us operators, cruise ship lines and rideshare companies already have such an arbitration clause that prohibits post-crash passenger/survivor lawsuits.

 

© 2019 William C. Vantuono, Amtrak’s “Mutual Agreement to Arbitrate”, Railway Age (10 November 2019) (excerpts)

 

 

For those do not know

 

Arbitrators are notorious for siding with the side that pays them or (alternatively) whose corporate face they see most often in arbitration hearings.

 

Guess who that is.

 

Yes, not you.

 

 

The moral? — You paid for your ticket, but . . .

 

. . . if the carrier (other than an airline) carelessly mutilates your frail self, that's pretty much "gonna" be on you or your heirs.

 

Capitalism.

 

Bless its greedy, culpability-avoiding heart.