According to the magazine "The Week" page 6, "Only in America, A federal jury has awarded $24.2 million to two men who were burned by a power cable while illegally climbing on top of an Amtrak train." ...."both 17 at the time of the 2002 accident, argued in their suit that Amtrak should have posted signs warning passengers that locomotives were powered by electricity and were not safe to climb." ...."the young men's lawyer, conceded that it would have been their fault if they had fallen off the train--but that Amtrak should be held responsible for the "unannounced, unwrapped, unmonitored" 12,500-volt power cable on top of the train." It seems to me that this lawsuit should have never been filed in the first place. I also believe these individuals should never have been granted such an exuberant amount of money for their own negligence. If you would have been a panelist on this jury, what would your verdict have been?
2006-11-08 12:28:14 · 7 answers · asked by Phyllobates 7 in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
While I still would side with Amtrak, there is still a lot more to the story than this brief summary listed here. There is some evidence to suggest that Amtrak was aware of the dangers and failed to comply with industry safety recommendations to prevent this type of incident.
Remember the McDonald's coffee case? What the media never tells you is the literally hundreds of complaints that McDonald's had received about the coffee temperature. Coffee should not cause second and third degree burns and yet it did.
In this case, Amtrak had been warned as far back as 1971 about this type danger apparently didn't follow federal safety recommendations to prevent this type of accident. A property owner who knows that a dangerous condition exists on their property and who knows that trespassers will come around has a legal duty to protect against injury.
2006-11-08 13:12:29 · answer #1 · answered by Carl 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's hard to give an opinion when the "victims" are jerks and the jury is made up of their peers "jerks".
I would've put the "victims" in a jail for the criminally insane and the jury as well.
Jerks are not isolated. The world is filled with them. So no opinions.
2006-11-08 20:51:14 · answer #2 · answered by wilashakespeare 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What was the train company expected to do? Was it natural for them to keep the cable as they were found or they shud have used insulated cables. No doubt contributory negligence shud have resulted in lower amount of compensation and the Court wud have definitely taken this fact into account while assessing the amount. I agree with the verdict.
2006-11-08 20:40:21 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Get out of the courtroom and stop wasting tax payers money. Be responsible for your own actions instead of looking for a lawsuit to get paid. LOSERS!!!
2006-11-08 20:32:27 · answer #4 · answered by DR 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
They would have not gotten a dime and I would like to see them charged for the damage they would have done to the train
2006-11-08 21:54:27 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
"What idiots! Case dismissed."
2006-11-08 20:33:04 · answer #6 · answered by Magdalene 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Welcome to the ugly world of truth!
2006-11-08 20:37:44 · answer #7 · answered by Calvin 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋