Father Sues Security Company After Daughter Killed by Metrolink Train
Los Angeles CA April 5 2020 A man whose 24-year-old daughter was killed in 2018 after falling onto tracks and being hit by a train at the Sylmar Metrolink station Friday sued the company he alleges was responsible for passenger safety.
Gregory Smith’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges wrongful death and seeks unspecified damages from Paramount-based RMI International Inc.
His daughter, Felicia Elizabeth Smith, of Long Beach, was struck by Palmdale-bound Metrolink Train 285 at the station in the 12200 block of Frank Modugno Drive about 6 p.m. April 16, 2018.
Felicia Smith died at the scene. She had been facing the tracks and turned, slipped and fell backward from the platform, Lt. Paul McLaughlin of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Mission Station said previously.
According to the suit, she was waiting for a northbound Metrolink train when she began to lose consciousness and unknowingly entered the yellow zone at least twice as the train approached.
A man whom witnesses said was Smith’s boyfriend jumped onto the tracks and tried to pull her to safety, but was only able to move her a short distance before he had to jump out of the way of the oncoming train, McLaughlin said.
RMI International was responsible for public safety at the Sylmar station and required to have security guards patrol the station to warn passengers to keep away from the yellow danger zone on the platform, the suit states. The company also was obligated to alert those operating Metrolink trains of any potential dangers, hazards and conditions at the station that might put passengers and other in harm’s way as trains approached and left the station, the suit states.
At the time of the incident, security guards were not patrolling and monitoring the platform even though there was a regularly scheduled Metrolink train en route, the suit states.
“As such, nothing was done to warn Felicia Elizabeth Smith that she had entered a location that put her in grave peril,” the suit states. “Moreover, nothing was done to remove her from that location and/or to warn or alert the engineer of the approaching Metrolink train that a passenger on the platform was experiencing a medical condition.”
Felicia Smith was unmarried and had no children, according to the suit.
