Some East Palestine derailment settlement payments should go out even during appeal of the deal

abcnews.go.com:

People who lived near the disastrous East Palestine train derailment last year should still be able to receive personal injury payments even while the bulk of their $600 million class action settlement with Norfolk Southern railroad remains on hold dur...

People who lived near the disastrous East Palestine derailment last year should still be able to receive personal injury payments even while the bulk of their $600 million class action settlement with Norfolk Southern railroad remains on hold during an appeal.

A spokesperson for the attorneys who represented residents said provisions of the deal will allow those personal injury payments to go forward while an appeal challenging whether the settlement is adequate and fair moves forward. It's not clear how much of the settlement fund will be used up by those payments because the attorneys haven't provided those details. A federal judge approved the settlement last month.

The lawyers haven't provided any breakdown of how many of the roughly 55,000 claims they received are for injuries and how many are for property damage, nor have they said how much each person will receive. Only 370 households and 47 businesses opted out of the deal.

Residents who lived within 10 miles (16 kilometers) of the train crash that happened near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border in February 2023 were eligible to receive up to $25,000 apiece as long as they gave up the right to sue later if someone develops cancer or any other serious health condition.

The property damage portion of the settlement provides larger payments of up to $70,000 per household for those living within two miles (3.2 kilometers) of the derailment, with payments decreasing the further away people lived, up to 20 miles (32