The Jourmal-News, White Plains, NY 1/2/19:
Did Metro-North 'buy the silence' of engineer in deadly Valhalla crash? Attorneys think so
Metro-North settled a legal claim filed by the engineer operating the Harlem Line train that crashed into an SUV at a Valhalla grade crossing in 2015, a move that upset victims.
Metro-North quietly settled a legal claim made by the engineer who was operating the train that slammed into a car at a Valhalla grade crossing in 2015, killing six in the deadliest accident in Metro-North’s history, The Journal News/lohud has learned.
But Metro-North refuses to reveal details of the settlement with its former engineer, Steven Smalls, setting up a legal challenge that has attorneys for injured passengers and the families of those who died accusing the railroad of trying to sway Smalls’ testimony in pending litigation.
“Metro-North settled with him to buy his silence,” said Steven Dorfman, an attorney who represents the estate of Walter Liedtke, 69, a curator of European paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.