Settlement reached in wrongful death lawsuit in truck driver’s 2022 death in train collision

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The widow of a truck driver who died in a crash in 2022 and the railway company she sued in a wrongful death lawsuit have agreed to a settlement.

Erin Barton, of Brookfield, Missouri, had sued Burlington Northern Santa Fe in July 2022 after her husband, Billy Barton II, was killed on June 27, 2022. An Amtrak train slammed into Barton’s vehicle at a Chariton County crossing.

Details of the settlement were not publicly published in documents dated on March 20, 2025. Court documents announcing the settlement was reached were made available in online court records on Monday. The settlement will be given to Erin Barton and her five adult children, court documents say.

Court documents in previous reporting say the crossing where Billy Barton II died had a steep incline, poor visibility because of its angle and overgrown brush and no active devices to warn drivers. Those documents claimed Barton could not hear or see the train coming.

Barton was driving a dump truck for an excavating company when the collision happened. He died at the scene. Three passengers were killed and about 150 people were injured, previous reporting indicates.