The accident
occurred in 2008 when Hiroyuki Joho, 18, was crossing the Edgebrook Metra station tracks in Chicago in pouring rain with an umbrella over his head, trying to catch an inbound Metra train when he was struck by a southbound Amtrak train traveling at more than 112 kph.
His body parts went flying and a big chunk of his body hit Gayane Zokhrabov, then 58. She was knocked to the ground, her leg and wrist broken and her shoulder injured.
A Cook County judge initially dismissed Zokhrabov's lawsuit, saying Joho couldn't have anticipated Zokhrabov's injuries. However, court of appeals ruled that Joho's death was “reasonably foreseeable” based on his actions and that his estate can be held responsible for his negligence.
Leslie Rosen, who handled Zokhrabov's appeal said:
Though the circumstances were very peculiar and gory and creepy, the case should be treated like a regular negligence case, no different than if a train passenger had been injured after the engineer hit the brakes. If you do something as stupid as this guy did, you have to be responsible for what comes from it.
Joho's mother, Jeung-Hee Park, filed her own lawsuit against Metra and the Canadian Pacific Railway for not warning Joho about the delay in arrival of his metra train.
