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EXCLUSIVE: Amtrak fights Queens architect’s train electric shock lawsuit
EXCLUSIVE: Amtrak fights Queens architect’s train electric shock lawsuit
BY John Marzulli /
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS /
Monday, April 25, 2016, 4:00 AM
A federal jury in Brooklyn will decide who was more reckless — Amtrak for parking an Acela train overnight under an electrified wire in Boston’s South Station, or a Queens architect who drunkenly climbed atop a train car and was shocked and badly burned by the wire. ... Brian Hopkins had just earned a Master’s Degree in architecture from Yale University and was celebrating having landed his first job on July 9, 2006, when he did something really stupid and was zapped with 25,000 volts running through the overhead wire.
Hopkins’ lawsuit against Amtrak and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority contends there was hazard sign in the station warning that the catenary lines were energized, and claimed that Hopkins’ actions were “a minor contributing factor despite his impaired condition — he had a blood alcohol level of .26, more than three times the legal limit if he was driving a car.
“The evidence certainly does not suggest that Defendants had actual intention to cause harm to Hopkins, so the question for trial will be whether Defendants’ conduct constituted ‘an intentional or unreasonable disregard of a risk that presented a high degree of probability that substantial harm would result to another,’” Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis ruled in denying a motion to dismiss the suit. ... Jury selection is scheduled for May 2 in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Hopkins suffered terrible injuries in the mishap. Firefighters found him engulfed in flames. He suffered severe burns over 85% of his body resulting in the amputation of an arm and a leg. He endured numerous skin grafts and a penile reconstruction.
BY John Marzulli /
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS /
Monday, April 25, 2016, 4:00 AM
A federal jury in Brooklyn will decide who was more reckless — Amtrak for parking an Acela train overnight under an electrified wire in Boston’s South Station, or a Queens architect who drunkenly climbed atop a train car and was shocked and badly burned by the wire. ... Brian Hopkins had just earned a Master’s Degree in architecture from Yale University and was celebrating having landed his first job on July 9, 2006, when he did something really stupid and was zapped with 25,000 volts running through the overhead wire.
Hopkins’ lawsuit against Amtrak and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority contends there was hazard sign in the station warning that the catenary lines were energized, and claimed that Hopkins’ actions were “a minor contributing factor despite his impaired condition — he had a blood alcohol level of .26, more than three times the legal limit if he was driving a car.
“The evidence certainly does not suggest that Defendants had actual intention to cause harm to Hopkins, so the question for trial will be whether Defendants’ conduct constituted ‘an intentional or unreasonable disregard of a risk that presented a high degree of probability that substantial harm would result to another,’” Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis ruled in denying a motion to dismiss the suit. ... Jury selection is scheduled for May 2 in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Hopkins suffered terrible injuries in the mishap. Firefighters found him engulfed in flames. He suffered severe burns over 85% of his body resulting in the amputation of an arm and a leg. He endured numerous skin grafts and a penile reconstruction.
There's a YouTube video that shows what happens when someone climbs on top of a passenger car and comes into contract with the overhead electrification. I think it was shot on a commuter line in southern Asia. It might be a 3,000-volt electrification, but that's just a guess. I'm not going to link to it. You can find it.
I know; it's the amperage that counts. 3,000 volts, 25,000 volts - either is capable of delivering enough current to kill.
The injuries sustained from coming into contact with energized conductors are devastating. Years ago, I was listening to my police scanner one summer afternoon, when I heard that a field behind a nearby elementary school was being turned into an "LZ" - a landing zone for a helicopter. The MedStar helicopter was being sent out to Alexandria, Virginia, from the Washington {DC} Hospital Center to pick up someone who had been burned when he came into contact with a power line.
About five years after that, I met the guy. He had been trimming trees when he came into contact with one phase of a three-phase overhead line. The single-phase line was running down a street to supply pole-mounted transformers that themselves supplied the power for service drops to houses in the residential neighborhood.
The person said that the line was energized at 19,200 volts. That might be phase-to-phase; it would give a phase-to-ground voltage of about 11,200, give or take. The most common voltage for such lines is 13,000 volts phase-to-ground, so that's in the ballpark.
Anyway, he had been through 23 operations. He was still wearing compressive wrap on parts of his body. These injuries are just terrible.
