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Man Crushed By Subway Platform Is Suing For $15 Million
By
Garth Johnston
Published Jan 19, 2011
Modified Jan 19, 2011
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Jan 19, 2011
Modified Jan 19, 2011
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Last December Michael Dion found himself in an awkward position, to put it mildly. He was stuck for half-an-hour between a 4 train and the extendable platform at Union Square. The incident left the 41-year-old in the hospital for nearly a month with fractures to both sides of his pelvis and internal damage to nearly all of his abdominal organs. So naturally he's now suing the MTA and NYCT for $15 million dollars.
Beyond damages, Dion and his lawyer are also seeking answers to two seemingly reasonable questions: why NYCT hasn't put some kind of guard rail by the platform extenders (a similar platform at South Ferry has chains to keep people from falling) and why nobody at Union Square had been trained to disengage the hydraulics that pushed the extender into him in the first place (it took half-an-hour for that to happen).
So how did Dion get between the train and the platform in the first place? Initial reports had said that Dion may have been drinking, but his lawyer claims the situation was simpler than that. The marketing exec simply fell into the gap between the train and the platform by accident and, as he was turning around to crawl back up, was crushed by the extender before he could get out. Which is why we like to stand back when a train approaches a station.
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CRUSHED BETWEEN PLATFORM
extended platform
michael dion
subway
union square
Garth Johnston
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