Wally
SuperDork
2/18/09 8:59 a.m.
I could have just gone one day, had a couple drinks and stuck my leg under a train. I guess it wouldn't bother me so much if it wasn't a regular occurance.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/02182009/news/regionalnews/drunk_rides_gravy_train_155744.htm
He got so drunk that he fell into the path of a subway train - costing him his right leg - but a Manhattan jury still awarded him $2.3 million after finding that NYC Transit was to blame.
Dustin Dibble, 25, of Brooklyn admitted he'd been boozing it up with friends for four hours before ending up on the tracks at the 14th Street Station with an N train bearing down on him. The impact took off his right leg just below the calf.
He had a .18 blood-alcohol level - more than double the legal limit if he were driving - at the time of the accident, according to hospital records.
Dibble admitted he was so blitzed he didn't remember anything about the 1:50 a.m. accident - including how he ended up on the tracks - but the jury still found he didn't bear the majority of the blame.
NYC Transit was the bigger culprit, said Dibble's lawyer, Andrew Smiley, because, "a subway- train operator is obligated to stop a subway train before it strikes a large object on the tracks, even if it is not known that the object is actually an intoxicated person."
Asked if his client's drunkenness factored into the accident, he said, "We never disputed that."
"It was just an accident [but] it wasn't my choice to lose my leg," Dibble said yesterday at his Bay Ridge home.
A spokesman for NYC Transit, Paul Fleuranges, said lawyers are reviewing the Feb. 9 verdict.
Mayor Bloomberg's office declined comment.
At trial, the agency countered that if Dibble hadn't been so drunk, he wouldn't have fallen on the tracks.
Dibble, then an investigator for Bergdorf Goodman, had gone out with friends to an Upper West Side bar on April 25, 2006, to watch his beloved Buffalo Sabres take on the Philadelphia Flyers in an NHL playoff game.
Smiley said his client was heading back to Staten Island when he entered the station at about 1:30 a.m. He doesn't recall anything else.
Train operator Michael Moore, a longtime MTA vet with a sparkling record, said in a deposition, "I saw what I thought was garbage on the track" and continued into the station.
Moore, who suffered a fatal stroke before the case went to trial, also said in his deposition, "I saw movement and I put the train into emergency" - meaning he hit the emergency brake.
Smiley said Moore had testified at the deposition that he couldn't "stop every time he sees garbage," because "there's garbage all over the place," but NYC Transit rules call for the motorman to stop the train if there's a mass on the tracks.
The lawyer told jurors Moore's decision is why his client, a former varsity college football and basketball player, lost his leg.
The jury returned a $3.5 million verdict in Dibble's favor, but also found him 35 percent responsible - meaning he'll collect $2,336,713, before lawyer's fees, unless there's a successful appeal.
I've never been to New York, so it's entirely possible I don't know what I'm talking about, but I think if I ever make it to NY, I would plan on staying the hell off the subway tracks.
And ride Wally's bus.
Two things to remember if I ever go to NY.
EricM
HalfDork
2/18/09 9:05 a.m.
well that sounds like a good plan, but I need my right leg, it has my right foot at the end of it. I need my right foot to press the accelerator in my car.....
Tim Baxter wrote:
I've never been to New York, so it's entirely possible I don't know what I'm talking about, but I think if I ever make it to NY, I would plan on staying the hell off the subway tracks.
And ride Wally's bus.
Two things to remember if I ever go to NY.
They are all Wallys now... he be a desk jockey.
Some years back a guy left a bar in Pennsylvania and for some unknown reason decided it would be a good idea to climb over a chain link fence and wander around inside a transformer station. Of course our hero got damn near fried. He sued the electric utility and won, claiming that they 'didn't do enough' to keep people out of the transformer station.
Then there were the girls who rented a U Haul truck to move, were drinking and smoking pot during their move and sucsequently wrecked the truck leading to injuries. U Haul was sued and found partially respoinsible.
Or how about the kids who were jumping from parking garage to parking garage in Atlanta, one of them fell and his parents sued the city of Atlanta claiming they didn't do enough to keep the kids out of the parking garages.
Nothing surprises me any more.
Wally
SuperDork
2/18/09 9:18 a.m.
I could never fit, I mean sit behind a desk. I work out among the people making sure everything runs on time. It's given me a whole new respect for Mussolini, but I guess I would have better results if I had a death squad to back me up.
Whaddya mean you don't have a death squad? Gee. Y'all are SO far behind the management technique times up there.
Death squads are so passe'.. you need a Brute Squad.
Wally wrote:
How's your left leg?
can you get a good feel for slipping the clutch with a prostesis? Or would I have to settle for some nice paddle shifters?
You need an OFFICE LINEBACKER!
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=office+linebacker&aq=f
My parents knew of someone who burned their apartment down. They burned an artificial log...in an artificial fire place... I think the person won the lawsuit.
Jensenman wrote:
Some years back a guy left a bar in Pennsylvania and for some unknown reason decided it would be a good idea to climb over a chain link fence and wander around inside a transformer station. Of course our hero got damn near fried. He sued the electric utility and won, claiming that they 'didn't do enough' to keep people out of the transformer station.
Then there were the girls who rented a U Haul truck to move, were drinking and smoking pot during their move and sucsequently wrecked the truck leading to injuries. U Haul was sued and found partially respoinsible.
Or how about the kids who were jumping from parking garage to parking garage in Atlanta, one of them fell and his parents sued the city of Atlanta claiming they didn't do enough to keep the kids out of the parking garages.
Nothing surprises me any more.
I wish society would let nature take its course and allow "Natural Selection" to occur.
But then there would be thousands of lawyers out of work, and the justice system might actually function as intended by our fore fathers. . .
procker
New Reader
2/18/09 8:03 p.m.
So I'm curious to know how one's Responsibility Percentage is calculated...35%...only? For gettin E36 M3ty and plopping on the tracks? I thought AT LEAST that would rank you a RP% of around 74....go figure!
And the prophecy continues.