In a recent NSW case the Court heard how a passenger tried to board a train as the train doors started to close. She stuck out her right arm but the doors closed on the strap of her handbag. Unfortunately the train immediately started to pull away and the passenger fell, her arm being caught by the strap of her handbag, and she was dragged and fell between the train and the platform. She suffered serious injuries to her bladder, pelvis, spinal fractures and back injuries.
The Passenger’s case
The passenger argued that the platform guard had allowed the train to move when the passenger was clearly in a dangerous position. She argued that the staff must have seen her positioned very close to the train and possibly even in contact with the train. In spite of that the staff had signalled to the driver that it was safe for the train to move.
The Rail Authorities case
The Rail Authority argued that the passenger had only herself to blame for the accident. They argued that she was intoxicated and that she had put herself in a position of danger by standing too close to the train while the doors were closing. They argued that if she hadn’t been intoxicated that she would not have fallen. In addition they argued that it was common for passengers, especially at rush-hour, to try to board trains while the doors were closing, and that it would be impossible to stop trains every time a passenger tried to board after the doors had closed.
The Court’s decision
The Court said that when you sue for compensation for somebody else’s negligence that it is your job to say exactly what the risk was that the Defendant should have done something about. In this case the risk that the Defendant should have foreseen was the risk that somebody could get caught in the train doors and that the train then moved off. That risk was foreseeable. Therefore the Train Authority should have done something about the risk. The Court considered the system of safety that the Train Authority had in place but in this particular case the Court decided that the safety system couldn’t have been followed because the train was allowed to move even though the passenger was still in a position of danger. For that reason the passenger won her case.
$1,760,251.54
The passenger was seriously injured. She claimed Pain & Suffering, the cost of care and equipment and accommodation costs. She did not claim lost earnings. Even without a claim for lost earnings the Court assessed her losses at over $1,760,000. But the Court then reduced her claim by 33% to take into account her own negligence in how the accident happened. She landed up with about $1,180,000 in compensation.
Lessons
This case could have gone either way: while train operators have a duty to protect passengers, train operators are not required to meet the standard of perfection – they just need to have a good safety system in place and they are required to enforce that system and make sure that they stick to the system. It appears that this passenger won her case because of the excellent work done by her personal injury lawyers and barristers. If you have been in an accident it is important that you get advice from skilled and experienced lawyers.
