Families of the 16 people killed in Amtrak's deadliest passenger train crash will share a $58 million settlement reached with Conrail, but relatives said they could never be compensated for the loss of loved ones. ``No it's not fair, but maybe it's as fair as things get. I'd just as soon see them bankrupt. The fact is, what you want is your kid back. After that, nothing is fair,'' said Ann Finkbeiner, whose 17-year-old son, Thomas C. Colley, was killed in the collision Jan. 4, 1987, at Chase. More than 175 people were injured when three linked Conrail engines skidded through a stop signal into the path of a 660-passenger Amtrak train traveling about 120 mph. The tentative settlement of the families' lawsuits, announced Tuesday, is subject to the approval of Consolidated Rail Corp.'s board of directors and various courts. The (Baltimore) Sun in today's editions quoted an unidentified attorney as saying some families will get more than $1 million based on factors that jurors would have considered had the cases gone to trial. ``Some of the victims had no economic dependents, some were wage earners with families. Some were trapped for 11 hours and some were killed instantly,'' the lawyer said. But Roger Horn, whose daughter Ceres, 16, died in the collision, said, ``It could be $580 million and there still would be no satisfaction in it. Would I rather have my daughter back at the dinner table at night? Of course.'' Horn said the image of ``lawyers with sharp pencils coming up with some horrible measurement of the worth of a life makes me just want to throw up every time I think about it.'' Horn said he hoped attention on the settlement would not distract from the continued effort for improved rail safety. ``I know there will be public interest in this settlement, and that's not bad or inappropriate. But what is really important is not the lawsuit, but reform legislation in Washington. And here we are, 16 months after the accident and we don't have a single line of reform legislation passed yet,'' Horn said. He and other relatives of those killed have pushed unsuccessfully for legislation to require rail, bus and airline workers in critical positions to be randomly tested for drugs. Post-accident tests showed traces of marijuana in the blood and urine of the Conrail engineer and the brakeman. Conrail agreed to settle the cases without conceding liability or the amount of damages incurred. The $58 million is in addition to $7.5 million Conrail agreed to place in an escrow account as a part of a proposed settlement of a class-action suit brought by those injured in the collision. A separate lawsuit is pending in which Conrail is seeking to force Amtrak to cover all amounts paid by Conrail for passenger injuries and deaths arising from the accident. Former Conrail engineer Ricky L. Gates, who missed a track signal and drove three linked Conrail locomotives through the track switch, was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter. Gates still faces federal charges for conspiracy, obstruction of an agency investigation, and lying to investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board about drug use.
