Columbia train derailment caused another train to crash, lawsuit says

Three years after a Norfolk Southern train derailed, injuring two employees, the rail company is taking the owners of a Richland County pasta facility to federal court.

In a lawsuit filed July 1, Norfolk Southern alleges that American Italian Pasta Company and its former parent company Treehouse Foods are at fault for the crash that day, arguing it resulted from their own train derailing too close to Norfolk Southern’s track. The railway says those two companies should be on the hook for damages.

What happened on July 11, 2022?

The derailment happened just outside of an American Italian Pasta Company facility near Shop Road, which has a rail connection to a Norfolk Southern main line.

According to lawsuits brought by Norfolk Southern and Raymond Rightmier, one of two employees injured in the crash, Enrico Blanchett, a pasta company employee, was moving a train with six cars using a remote control. The train was within the facility’s own tracks, but it soon began to roll towards the Norfolk Southern main line after Blanchett lost control.

The railway alleges that the pasta company did not have any written procedures or formal training for operating a locomotive and that Blanchett was not originally hired for a role involving train operation. He was still in a 90-day introductory period for new hires at the time of the incident, the lawsuit added.

The train hit a device called a double switch point derail, which intentionally derails runaway trains to prevent them from crossing into another active railway. The device took the train off of the rail as designed, but the locomotive still came to a rest too close to the Norfolk Southern line.

Norfolk Southern claims that Blanchett then left the scene without notifying the railway that a train was partially blocking the tracks. The pasta company and Treehouse “knew or should have known” about the issue but also failed to warn Norfolk Southern, the lawsuit reads.

Just after 8 a.m., Norfolk Southern Train 238 came down the tracks on its journey from Columbia to Charleston. Unaware of the danger ahead, Train 238 collided with the derailed train before coming off the rails itself, injuring the two crew members on board.

Norfolk Southern and John Radeck, an attorney who represented Blanchett against an earlier lawsuit from one of the injured railway employees, declined to comment. Treehouse Foods did not respond to a request for comment.

What does Norfolk Southern want?

Norfolk Southern is seeking damages, including the amount it paid in settlements Norfolk Southern made to its two injured employees, Rightmier and David Small. The two sued the railway and both food companies in the years following the crash, and the railway settled both cases earlier this year.

Never admitting fault, Norfolk Southern considers the settlements to be among several expenses that the pasta company or Treehouse should have paid.

A 1995 contract from when the pasta facility’s rail connection was set up states that the pasta company has to protect Norfolk Southern from any damages originating from the pasta company’s own negligence or rail car operations.

By not paying the railway for its legal expenses, American Italian Pasta Company and Treehouse Foods breached that contract, the lawsuit alleges.

The railway also alleges that the other companies are responsible for “loss or damage to three locomotives and multiple rail cars, track and equipment damage, environmental costs and response costs” as a result of the crash, the lawsuit read.

The lawsuit does not give a dollar amount for claimed damages.

The first lawsuits

In October 2022, Rightmier became the first to file a lawsuit related to the incident, suing Norfolk Southern, the American Italian Pasta Company, Treehouse Foods and Blanchett as an individual.

In April 2023, Small filed his lawsuit, which unlike Rightmier’s, did not individually sue Blanchett.

In both lawsuits, the workers accused Norfolk Southern of violating the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, a 1908 law made specifically to compensate railroad workers for injuries on the job. Both allege that Norfolk Southern failed to properly install the derail system, therefore creating an unsafe work environment.

A 1997 agreement between the railway and the pasta company shows that Norfolk Southern agreed to build and maintain the portion of storage track 1 containing the derail device.

In June 2025, Small reached a settlement with Norfolk Southern, but the case remains pending against the pasta company. A few weeks earlier, Rightmier’s case was dismissed after a settlement was reached.