SHREVEPORT — The Louisiana Department of Transportation (LDOT) wants a federal judge to hear a lawsuit involving the death of a truck driver hit by a train.
LDOT filed a notice of removal on Oct. 5 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana in regards to a lawsuit filed by Dierdre Hobley against LDOT and the Kansas City Southern Railway Company (KCSRC).
According to court documents, Hobley's husband drove a tractor trailer past railroad warning signs and into the oncoming path of a KCSRC train. The accident occurred last year in Sabine Parish.
LDOT claims the agency should not be a defendant in the lawsuit, because the purpose is to defeat diversity jurisdiction. KCSRC is based in Missouri. The agency says the allegations against it are “impermissibly vague and conclusory."
“The petition also vaguely refers to insufficient signs present, ignoring the numerous warning signs undisputedly in place that decedent drove past (and literally through) before causing the accident at issue, and without alleging how those numerous warning signs possibly could have been insufficient,” LDOT wrote in its filing.
Hobley seeks wrongful death damages.