A Brazilian student tourist who had lost her arm and leg while on a visit to New York City in 2016 has now been awarded a staggering $82 million in a jury verdict at a Brooklyn federal court.
The woman, Luisa Janssen Harger Da Silva, who was aged 21 at the time of the accident, had lost her limbs after she fainted at a subway platform and fell onto the Atlantic Avenue tracks, where an oncoming train ran her over, according to the New York Post.
‘MTA doesn’t take train accidents seriously’
Da Silva’s lawyers had argued that the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) had 15 years of data showing people could fall onto the tracks, which it hadn’t taken seriously.
The jury sided with Da Silva and her legal team, agreeing that the MTA did not take steps to install platform edge safety devices to prevent such accidents.
The MTA has appealed the case, saying it disagrees with the verdict, asking a higher court to review the case, according to The New York Post.
Past New York City train accidents
Last year, another man, identified as Lamont Powell, who lost an arm and leg when he drunkenly fell on the tracks and was hit by a subway train in 2018 was awarded $90 million by a jury, UNILAD had reported. The compensation, however, was later brought down to just under $40 million by a judge.
In another case, a Bangladesh-born man, Maruf Hossain, was seriously injured in June 2017 when he tripped on a chipped Parkchester platform, sending him to the tracks below as a train pulled into the station.
All of the toes on the man’s left foot were severed, and the train hit him with such force that it dislocated his hip, fractured his pelvis and left him with head trauma and spinal fractures, his suit said.
Nearly eight years later, a jury ended up awarding $22.75 million to the man, Newsweek reported.
In New York City, train accidents are a significant concern, with the state of New York reporting 1,106 total train accidents in 2024, resulting in 1,072 injuries and 34 fatalities, World Population Review reported, quoting data from the Federal Railroad Administration.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) experienced 534 major subway incidents in 2023, a 66% increase from 2019, with 192 incidents caused by people on the tracks or stoppages needing police or medical response, according to the Office of the New York State Comptroller.
