Woman struck by train sues railroad

[Jeebus]

Woman struck by train sues railroad

 

Tools Print this article

E-mail this article

Subscribe to this paper

Larger / Smaller Text

 

By Matthew Junker

TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Friday, November 5, 2004

 

A Jeannette woman who was slightly injured after being struck by a train while walking along railroad tracks sued Norfolk Southern Corp. Thursday for failing to warn pedestrians that trains travel on tracks.

 

Patricia M. Frankhouser, of 910 Scott Ave., is seeking an unspecified amount in excess of $30,000 from the Norfolk, Va., rail transport company for the Jan. 6 incident that left her with a broken finger, cuts on her hand and pain, according to the suit.

 

Greensburg attorney Harry F. Smail Jr., who represents Frankhouser, didn't return a call seeking comment.

 

Within the filing, he argues that the railroad was negligent for failing to post signs warning "of the dangers of walking near train tracks and that the tracks were actively in use."

 

According to the suit, Frankhouser was walking along the tracks near Seventh and Eighth streets in Jeannette.

 

"Defendant's failure to warn plaintiff of the potential dangers negligently provided plaintiff with the belief she was safe in walking near the train tracks," the suit states.

 

The filing does not state why Frankhouser failed to hear the oncoming train and get out of the way.

 

It also does not state if she was crossing the rail bed or walking in between, or along, the tracks.

 

The case has been assigned to Westmoreland County Judge William J. Ober. No hearing has been set.

 

Matthew Junker can be reached at mjunker@tribweb.com or (724) 837-0240.

 

Back to headlines

[Tedster]

Stuff like this really pisses me off, because there are legitimate suits that lawyers won't take, but they'll take this stuff.

[phaeton]

Any judge in their right mind would through this one out. I'm willing to bet that crap like this gets thrown out much more often than not.

 

Sure the old lady with the mcdonald's coffee sticks in our minds, but that's an exception.

 

Otherwise, Blame Canada! They own all the railroads in N. America.

[Dan South]

I heard on the radio just this morning that, in the United States, there's an average of one train/automobile collision every 90 minutes, and an average of ONE DEATH PER DAY.

 

Be careful especially at crossings where there are no lights or gates.

[Hendmik]

And there should be signs in every kitchen about the dangers of eating glass.

[Billster]

I'm going to be a nudge here and play devil's advocate.

 

In this day and age, a lot of train tracks are now unused. Wherever there is potential access to the right of way, it SHOULD be posted that the tracks are "live". So there is a shred of merit to claiming that she didn't know a train might come along those particular tracks.

 

THAT SAID, when I'm waiting for my commuter train in the morning, i can hear it from at least 1/2 a mile away. How far do you have to have your head up your ass to not hear a train approaching?

[Sistatroll_dup1]

I actually talked to a guy a week ago who got hit by a train. He said it was backing up and that while backing up, a train is almost silent.

[whitefang]

I live near train tracks, about 1/4 mile away. As often as those bastards blow their horns, I can't imagine this person not hearing the approach. Unless she's deaf, which would mean it's her responsibility to take proper precaution. Another good sign is that tracks in use are usually shiny from use, and unused tracks show signs of corrosion.

 

My favorite lawsuit took place here in Michigan in the early '70's. A man who tried to start a career as a professional singer became discouraged when after several auditions, he was told he sounded too much like Bing Crosby, and never got the gigs. So he attempted to sue Crosby for "detrimental impacting of livelihood."

 

As the man was in his early 40's, and Crosby was 70 something at the time, and had a decades long legendary career, the judge wisely threw the case to the curb.

 

Whitefang

[fantasticsound]

Originally posted by billster:

I'm going to be a nudge here and play devil's advocate.

 

In this day and age, a lot of train tracks are now unused. Wherever there is potential access to the right of way, it SHOULD be posted that the tracks are "live". So there is a shred of merit to claiming that she didn't know a train might come along those particular tracks...

I have to disagree, Bill.

 

Anyone who treats any railroad track as if it were wholly unused is simply an idiot. I don't care if there is long grass growing up between the rails and cross members. The extension of your arguement is that we need to put up signs on every street to let people know cars might drive by. And before you argue that is ridiculous because roads are used often enough to negate the need for such signs, I suggest there are thousands of miles of road that are every bit as unused as any stretch of railroad.

 

This is just another poster-child for tort reform.

[techristian]

There is no such thing as "common sense" anymore.

 

After that woman sued McDonalds for $6 million almost every major restaurant prints ON EVERY COFFEE CUP "CONTENTS HOT" "BE CAREFUL"

 

I'm expecting someone to sue a CITY when they get hit crossing the street because a SIGN wasn't posted saying "LOOK BOTH WAYS BEFORE YOU CROSS THE STREET" "CARS CAN HURT YOU"

 

Dan

I know Fantasticsound. I almost repeated you. Sorry about that.

http://musicinit.com/pvideos.html

[shniggens]

What happened to personal responsibility?

 

We the lawyers, of the United States of America. . .

[Super 8]

Originally posted by Hendmik:

And there should be signs in every kitchen about the dangers of eating glass.

That's a GOOD IDEA! I'm tired of spitting out blood all the time!

[Super 8]

Originally posted by fantasticsound:

I have to disagree, Bill.

 

Anyone who treats any railroad track as if it were wholly unused is simply an idiot.

Idiots deserve equal protection.

 

As a parent, I'm sure you are aware of how much safer children's toys, and car seats and cribs are than they used to be.

 

I'm not saying that there aren't silly lawsuits being filed by gold-diggers and ambulance chasers. But there HAVE been some positive changes brought about by some of those lawsuits.

 

Everybody likes to bring up that McDonald's coffee thing. But I think that was a BIG exception to the norm.

Besides, considering how often McDonald's screws people over at the 'Drive-Thru', the plaintiff probably broke even on the deal.

[fantasticsound]

Originally posted by Super 8:

Originally posted by fantasticsound:

I have to disagree, Bill.

 

Anyone who treats any railroad track as if it were wholly unused is simply an idiot.

Idiots deserve equal protection.

Not for something as obvious as this.

 

But no kid (let alone adult) that I know who understands he/she must watch for traffic when approaching a street would be oblivious to do the same on a railroad track.

 

As a parent, I'm sure you are aware of how much safer children's toys, and car seats and cribs are than they used to be.

 

I'm not saying that there aren't silly lawsuits being filed by gold-diggers and ambulance chasers. But there HAVE been some positive changes brought about by some of those lawsuits.

 

Totally different set of circumstances. Until you have kids you really don't understand just how oblivious you are to the dangers of a child ingesting small, often toxic objects that look benign. You think you have a good frame of reference, but you don't. Having forced warning notices on bags of Silica (used to keep products dry), toys that are unsuitable for young children, etc. gives parents that wake-up call before they end up in an emergency room or morgue with their child.

 

A grown adult, even if they've never been near a railroad track, should have the "cultural literacy" to understand large vehicles that take miles to stop travel these tracks and treat any such tracks with the utmost respect. Of course, some people are too stupid for their own good. This woman appears to fit that description. Certainly those who run crossing gates or railroad/road crossings without gates and get hit fall into the same category.

 

Everybody likes to bring up that McDonald's coffee thing. But I think that was a BIG exception to the norm.

Besides, considering how often McDonald's screws people over at the 'Drive-Thru', the plaintiff probably broke even on the deal.

I'm a lot less critical of the McDonald's lawsuit than most. I don't drink much coffee. But I handled cups of McDonald's coffee for my short time working for a McD's and I support the idea that you wouldn't know just how scalding hot their coffee is served until you burned yourself once. This poor old lady never saw what was coming or she would've had the cup in a cup holder away from her lap. I'm just surprised this was the first lawsuit regarding this unsafe situation.

 

I'm open to the possibility this woman has some kind of legitimate excuse to blame the railroad. But, admitedly, I find it highly unlikely this is the case.

[Ouizel]

Originally posted by fantasticsound:

I'm open to the possibility this woman has some kind of legitimate excuse to blame the railroad. But, admitedly, I find it highly unlikely this is the case.

I'm not, and I hope that the judge isn't, either. She got hurt committing a crime. Granted, trespassing isn't a serious crime, but it is a crime, and she got hurt committing it. Too bad. If someone breaks into my house, without my permission, and trips on the rug and sprains their wrist, am I responsible?

 

If the judge is smart, he'll throw it out.

[Sistatroll_dup1]

Originally posted by Ouizel:

If someone breaks into my house, without my permission, and trips on the rug and sprains their wrist, am I responsible?

 

Sadly, in California, yes.

[Ouizel]

As true as that may be, it's bullshit. It's just my opinion, but I feel that if a person is injured during the commission of a crime, then their right to sue for damages should be absolutely denied. That person gave up their right to sue when they committed the crime, just like they gave up their right to freedom.

 

Until we, the people, stand up and say something about this screwy practice, it will continue.

[Bill Heins]

A repost from elsewhere-

 

2004 STELLA AWARDS

 

It's time once again to review the winners of the annual "Stella Awards."(The Stellas are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck, who spilled coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's.) That case inspired the Stella awards for the most frivolous successful lawsuits in the United States.

 

Here are this year's winners:

 

5th Place (tie):

 

<>Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded $780,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little Toddler was Ms Robertson's son.

 

5th Place (tie):

 

19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car while he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.

 

5th Place (tie):

 

Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was leaving a house he had just finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation, and Mr. Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a large bag of dry dog food. He sued the homeowner's insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of $500,000.

 

4th Place:

 

Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500 and expenses after being bitten on the rear end by his next door neighbor's beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. The award was less than sought because the jury felt the dog might have been just a little provoked at the time by Mr. Williams, who had climbed over the fence into the yard and was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.

 

3rd Place:

 

A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500 after she slipped on a soft drink and broke her coccyx (tailbone). The beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.

 

2nd Place:

 

Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully sued the owner of a night club in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred while Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge.. She was awarded $12,000 and dental expenses.

 

1st Place:

 

This year's runaway winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski of Overland Park, KS. Mrs. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home On her first trip home (from a KU basketball game), having driven onto the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back & make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the RV left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not explaining in the owner's manual that cruise control isn't automatic pilot. The jury awarded her $1,750,000 plus a new motor home.

 

It appears the trully stupid people are those awarding settlements

 

Darkon the Incandescent

[Bill Heins]

And now the true ones

 

Reported as real cases:-

 

The 2003 True Stella Awards Winners

by Randy Cassingham

Issued 21 January 2004

 

#8: Stephen Joseph of San Francisco, Calif. Joseph runs a non-profit group whose goal is to ban the "trans fats" used in many processed foods and which are indeed very unhealthy. But to help gain publicity for his cause, Joseph, an attorney, chose one food that uses trans fats -- Oreo cookies -- and sued Kraft Foods for putting the stuff in the snack. The resulting publicity over "suing Oreos" was so intense that Joseph dropped the suit after just 13 days. He never even served the suit on Kraft, showing that he had no interest in actually getting the case heard in court. What real cases got pushed aside during his abuse of the courts to get publicity for his pet organization?

 

#7: Shawn Perkins of Laurel, Ind. Perkins was hit by lightning in the parking lot Paramount's Kings Island amusement park in Mason, Ohio. A classic "act of God", right? No, says Perkins' lawyer. "That would be a lot of people's knee-jerk reaction in these types of situations." The lawyer has filed suit against the amusement park asking unspecified damages, arguing the park should have "warned" people not to be outside during a thunderstorm.

 

#6: Caesar Barber, 56, of New York City. Barber, who is 5-foot-10 and 270 pounds, says he is obese, diabetic, and suffers from heart disease because fast food restaurants forced him to eat their fatty food four to five times per week. He filed suit against McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's and KFC, who "profited enormously" and asked for unspecified damages because the eateries didn't warn him that junk food isn't good for him. The judge threw the case out twice, and barred it from being filed a third time. Is that the end of such McCases? No way: lawyers will just find another plaintiff and start over, legal scholars say.

 

#5: Cole Bartiromo, 18, of Mission Viejo, Calif. After making over $1 million in the stock market, the feds made Bartiromo pay it all back: he gained his profits, they said, using fraud. Bartiromo played baseball at school, but after his fraud case broke he was no longer allowed to participate in extracurricular sports. Bartiromo clearly learned a lot while sitting in federal court: he wrote and filed his own lawsuit against his high school, reasoning that he had planned on a pro baseball career but, because he was kicked off the school's team, pro scouts wouldn't be able to discover him. His suit demands the school reimburse him for the great salary he would have made in the majors, which he figures is $50 million.

 

#4: Priest David Hanser, 70. Hanser was one of the first Catholic priests to be caught up in the sex abuse scandal. In 1990, he settled a suit filed by one of his victims for $65,000. In the settlement, Hanser agreed not to work with children anymore, but the victim learned that Hanser was ignoring that part of the agreement. The victim appealed to the church, asking it to stop Hanser from working near children, but the church would not intervene. "It's up to the church to decide where he works," argued the priest's lawyer. When the outraged victim went to the press to warn the public that a pedo priest was near children, Hanser sued him for the same $65,000 because he violated his own part of the deal -- to keep the settlement secret. The message is clear: shut up about outrageous abuse, or we'll sue you for catching us.

 

#3: Wanda Hudson, 44, of Mobile, Ala. After Hudson lost her home to foreclosure, she moved her belongings to a storage unit. She says she was inside her unit one night "looking for some papers" when the storage yard manager found the door to her unit ajar -- and locked it. She denies that she was sleeping inside, but incredibly did not call for help or bang on the door to be let out! She was not found for 63 days and barely survived; the formerly "plump" 150-pound woman lived on food she just happened to have in the unit, and was a mere 83 pounds when she was found. She sued the storage yard for $10 million claiming negligence. Even though the jury was not allowed to learn that Hudson had previously diagnosed mental problems, it found Hudson was nearly 100 percent responsible for her own predicament -- but still awarded her $100,000.

 

#2: Doug Baker, 45, of Portland, Ore. Baker says God "steered" him to a stray dog. He admits "People thought I was crazy" to spend $4,000 in vet bills to bring the injured mutt back to health, but hey, it was God's dog! But $4,000 was nothing: he couldn't even take his girlfriend out to dinner without getting a dog-sitter to watch him. When the skittish dog escaped the sitter, Baker didn't just put an ad in the paper, he bought display ads so he could include a photo. His business collapsed since he devoted full time to the search for the dog. He didn't propose to his girlfriend because he wanted the dog to deliver the ring to her. He hired four "animal psychics" to give him clues to the animal's whereabouts, and hired a witch to cast spells. He even spread his own urine around to "mark his territory" to try to lure the dog home! And, he said, he cried every day. Two months in to the search, he went looking for the dog where it got lost -- and quickly found it. His first task: he put a collar on the mutt. (He hadn't done that before for a dog that was so "valuable"?!) After finding the dog, he sued the dog sitter, demanding $20,000 for the cost of his search, $30,000 for the income he lost by letting his business collapse, $10,000 for "the temporary loss of the special value" of the dog, and $100,000 in "emotional damages" -- $160,000 total. God has not been named as a defendant.

 

And the winner of the 2003 True Stella Awards: The City of Madera, Calif. Madera police officer Marcy Noriega had the suspect from a minor disturbance handcuffed in the back of her patrol car. When the suspect started to kick at the car's windows, Officer Noriega decided to subdue him with her Taser. Incredibly, instead of pulling her stun gun from her belt, she pulled her service sidearm and shot the man in the chest, killing him instantly. The city, however, says the killing is not the officer's fault; it argues that "any reasonable police officer" could "mistakenly draw and fire a handgun instead of the Taser device" and has filed suit against Taser, arguing the company should pay for any award from the wrongful death lawsuit the man's family has filed. What a slur against every professionally trained police officer who knows the difference between a real gun and a stun gun! And what a cowardly attempt to escape responsibility for the actions of its own under-trained officer.

 

Darkon the Incandescent

[Billster]

Originally posted by fantasticsound:

Originally posted by billster:

I'm going to be a nudge here and play devil's advocate.

 

In this day and age, a lot of train tracks are now unused. Wherever there is potential access to the right of way, it SHOULD be posted that the tracks are "live". So there is a shred of merit to claiming that she didn't know a train might come along those particular tracks...

I have to disagree, Bill.

 

Anyone who treats any railroad track as if it were wholly unused is simply an idiot. I don't care if there is long grass growing up between the rails and cross members. The extension of your arguement is that we need to put up signs on every street to let people know cars might drive by. And before you argue that is ridiculous because roads are used often enough to negate the need for such signs, I suggest there are thousands of miles of road that are every bit as unused as any stretch of railroad.

 

This is just another poster-child for tort reform.

There's a legal concept that covers "open and obvious" hazard. A street is pretty much going to be "open and obvious" Perhaps train tracks have not been determined to meet that standard yet? Notice I did say "yet"

[fantasticsound]

Originally posted by billster:

...There's a legal concept that covers "open and obvious" hazard. A street is pretty much going to be "open and obvious" Perhaps train tracks have not been determined to meet that standard yet? Notice I did say "yet"

If a railroad track isn't "open and obvious" then our society is in deep trouble. I mean, we've only had railroad tracks criss-crossing our country for over 150 years.