$4.5M award to Amtrak upheld in deadly Nevada truck crash

RENO, Nev. (AP) - A federal judge has refused to grant a new trial for a Nevada trucking firm ordered to pay more than $4.5 million in damages to Amtrak after a truck slammed into a train at a rural crossing in 2011, killing six people.

A U.S. District Court jury in Reno returned the verdict in September 2014 against the Battle Mountain-based John Davis Trucking.

The jurors concluded an inattentive truck driver who was killed along with five people on the California Zephyr was primarily to blame for the crash 60 miles northeast of Reno on U.S. Highway 95.

The company argued Judge Howard McKibben should have instructed the jury to consider evidence suggesting a faulty crossing signal could have contributed to the collision.

McKibben ruled Monday the verdict was reasonable, so he has no legal basis to revisit the case.