Towson Businessman's Family Sues Amtrak Over Derailment

Family members of the Towson businessman killed in the recent Philadelphia train derailment have filed suit against Amtrak.

Bob Gildersleeve, 45, of Elkridge was in the first car of the train that crashed off its rails the evening of May 12.

Gildersleeve, vice president for corporate accounts for Ecolab in Towson, was on his way to a business meeting in New York when the train derailed at 106 mph. He was sitting in the front passenger car.

A wrongful death lawsuit filed Monday accuses Amtrak of negligence and outrageous conduct on behalf of Gildersleeve’s wife, two children and parents, according to WBAL.

The National Transportation Safety Board continues to investigate the cause of the derailment. The board determined that the train entered a curve at 106 mph when it derailed. The speed limit on the curve is 50 mph, according to the safety board.

The lawyer for Gildersleeve’s widow, who filed suit against Amtrak, said this was a “grotesquely excessive speed that cost the lives and limbs of others,” according to the Daily Times, which reports the family seeks compensation for funeral and medical expenses and loss of the family’s breadwinner.

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Passengers and employees have filed more than a dozen lawsuits against Amtrak in connection with the derailment, which killed eight and injured more than 200 people, the Philadelphia Business Journal reports.

Gildersleeve was the last victim to be found; the crash was on a Monday and his body was found Thursday. He leaves behind two teenage children and his wife, who remembered him as a “remarkable dad” and spirited human being at a May 18 funeral service attended by hundreds in New Jersey, where he used to live, according to NJ.com.

Gildersleeve graduated in 1990 from the Culinary Institute of America, where a scholarship fund has been established in his memory. As of Tuesday, it has raised more than $100,000.

Photo Credit: National Transportation Safety Board.