I was sitting here thinking about a conversation I had with a collegue of mines about how people will sue at the drop of a hat for almost anything when I came across this:


Family of teenager files wrongful death lawsuit against Metra

December 15, 2004 — The family of a Chicago teenager who was struck and killed by a Metra train on her way to school has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the commuter rail service.
Police at the time said 14-year-old Kelly Nelson was wearing headphones when she was struck by the train in March.

Her family's lawsuit, filed yesterday in Cook County Circuit Court, claims Metra is negligent for either not having a protective fence or for not having an adequate warning horn.

Metra officials have said a student engineer was running the train at the time. They say he sounded the train's horn and threw the emergency brake but was unable to stop in time. They say the girl was walking with her back to the train and her head down.

A Metra spokeswoman says the agency has not had a chance to review the lawsuit.



Heres the link: http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/121504_ap_ns_metra.html

Do you think this case is Justified? If so (or not), explain!!

There are situations in which the victim's contributory negligence is outweighed by the negligence of the person causing the harm, but this wouldn't be one of them. The article doesn't say whether she was walking on the tracks (trespassing) or just crossing them at a grade crossing, but either way, she wasn't paying attention and the railroad did everything it was supposed to.

Remember about twenty years ago when those protesters were laying down on the train tracks in an effort to stop the train from transporting something they felt was dangerous. And one of them got run over and lost both his legs. That idiot sued the railroad and won. What a crock. He purposely lays down on a RR track in front of an oncoming train and when it can't stop in time he sues because he lost his legs.

I hope that nutjob enjoys his wheel chair.