Across the USA: Illinois
LAWYERS WEEKLY USA, 09/01/2000Prize-winning violinist Rachel Barton should be paid $29.6 million for the train accident in which she lost a leg and part of a foot, a jury has found.
Barton was dragged 366 feet down the tracks from a suburban Winnetka commuter platform after the strap of her violin case caught in a closing door in 1995. She sued Metra, the commuter rail agency, and the Chicago and Northwestern Transportation Co., now owned by Union Pacific.
Barton claimed that the strap pinned her between the doors. She said that she kept clutching the strap because her 200-year-old Amati violin was worth $500,000.
In closing argument, Barton’s attorney Robert Clifford called the accident "an event waiting to happen." He pointed to 14 riders who have been pinned between train doors in similar circumstances over the last five years.
