A passenger of the Conch Tour Train in Key West filed a lawsuit against the train’s operator this week, several months after the train jumped the curb and struck a sign.
On Aug. 23, the plaintiff, Shari Everette, was a fare-paying passenger on the sight-seeing train, which is operated by Historic Tours of America. While transporting Everette, the driver, who was not identified in the lawsuit, “suddenly, without warning and with force, ran the subject vehicle into and/or up onto the curb and crashed it into a sign,” the lawsuit stated.
“As a direct result of the negligence of defendant Conch Tour, plaintiff Shari Everette was aggressively jostled in the passenger compartment and sustained severe and permanent physical injuries,” the lawsuit stated.
The driver requested the passenger’s assistance in getting the train “back on track,” Everette’s attorney, Ira Leesfield, said. Everette received medical treatment when she returned home in Alabama, where she is employed by a local school district, Leesfield said.
In addition to the injuries received by Everette, the Conch Tour Train destroyed the stop sign and crashed into a pole. Investigation of the incident is still pending, Leesfield said.
Leesfield charged that Historic Tours of America failed to “exercise reasonable care in the operation of its transportation business” and failed “to operate the subject vehicle in a safe and reasonable manner,” the lawsuit stated. In addition, the company failed “to keep an adequate and proper lookout,” and “operate the subject vehicle in a careful and prudent manner, having regard for traffic and all other attendant circumstances so as not to endanger the life, limb, and property of any person” and failed “to keep the subject vehicle entirely on the road.”
Leesfield questioned the safety of the vehicles and the experience of the drivers. The company failed “to ensure its employees, agents, and servants were properly trained with respect to operating the subject vehicle on narrow streets,” the lawsuit stated.
“This is the eighth recent incident involving the mishandling of the Conch Tour trains,” Leesfield said.
Historic Tours of America did not respond to the Keys Citizen’s email request for comment.
In March, a Conch Tour Train struck a bicyclist in Old Town Key West.
The Key West Police Department recently released a draft of a traffic report providing some details of that crash, which sent the tourist to the hospital.
The collision at the corner of Whitehead Street at Truman Avenue near the Hemingway House resulted in Sandra King, 55, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, being taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami via the Trauma Star helicopter.
King and her husband were riding bikes south on Whitehead Street, and King was about a half-block ahead of her husband when the accident occurred. The Conch Train’s bumper struck King’s back tire, according to the police report that quoted a witness who was standing on the sidewalk. King was “pushed and fell, was dragged and eventually ran over,” by the Conch Train, which was driven by Key West resident Pamela Lewis.
Lewis told police that “she didn’t see anyone in front of her,” the police report stated. “None of the passengers on the trolley saw the impact, only felt the trolley (train) run over something.”
King had abrasions to her arms and legs and police called for the Trauma Star helicopter to take her to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, according to the report.
“The trolley camera footage was unavailable at the time of this crash report,” the police report stated. “Once the footage is made available, a follow-up to this crash will be completed. It is unknown if PED 1 (King) swerved in out front of the V1 (the Conch Train).”
Police investigated the crash and listed the Conch Tour Train driver’s actions at the time of the crash as “improper passing,” the report stated.
