A Manhattan jury awarded $2.33 million to a man who lost his leg after drunkenly stumbling onto the path of an oncoming subway train.
The drunk’s lawyer. His name is Smiley.Dustin Dibble, 25, landed in the subway tracks after a late night watching a hockey game at a bar with friends April 23, 2006. A downtown N train ran over him, severing his right leg. According to Dibble’s lawyer, Andrew Smiley, NYC Transit rather than Dibble bore primary responsibility for the accident because the subway driver had time to stop the train but did not.
Smiley added that Dibble’s drunkenness did not excuse the driver, who said in a court deposition that he mistook Dibble for an inert object.
Dibble’s blood-alcohol level at the time of the accident was .18, according to his lawyer, more than twice the legal limit had he been behind the wheel of a car.
In my neck of the prairie, drunks pass out on railroad tracks with some frequency. Seems like every month or two, somewhere along the East-West rail corridor through New Mexico a drunk is killed or grievously injured – walking on the tracks, sleeping on the tracks, sitting on the train tracks.
Haven’t heard of a jury here yet that rewarded the drunk.
#12 Paddy,
Damien Hirst and his preserved animals sold for an obscene price. ’nuff said.
The driver had time to stop. He didn’t. That counts as willful negligence which is why the jury awarded actual damages and punitive damages.
He was also dinged for 35% his own fault. The original settlement was $3.6 million.
I do not agree with the court ruling, but I’ve always thought that railroads as we know them should simply not exist anymore. They’re way too dangerous, they are the stage of hundreds if not thousands of horrible accidents every year. I think it’s an obviously flawed concept that we as a civilization still keep just because it’s comparatively cheap.
The drunks on the jury no doubt forgot they and their families are going to provide the drunk with the money.