A man who fell out of a moving Metra train and his spouse are suing for injuries suffered in the accident.
Keith Anderson and Mary Morphew filed a complaint on July 1 in Cook County Circuit Court against BNSF Railway Co., Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corp., doing business as Metra, and Regional Transportation Authority.
At 5:25 p.m. on Dec. 19, 2014, Anderson was a passenger on Metra's BNSF train number 1249, which was at the LaGrange Station on the outbound side. As he was trying to leave the train, the lawsuit states, the train began to move while its doors were opening, causing Anderson to fall out of the passenger door.
The defendants are cited with allowing the train to move before passengers were disembarked, prematurely signaling the engineer to move the train before it was safe, inadequately training its staff, failing to keep a proper lookout, failing to equip its train with signaling devices, failing to install signs warning of a hazard, failing to install chimes or voice recordings to warn passengers that the train doors might not close failing to adopt the Metra "second-look" rule, failing to conduct a safety audit, failing to enforce Metra's coach door operation rule, and failing to post a worker on a car with a defective door.
Anderson, alleging three counts of negligence, seeks damages of more than $150,000, plus costs. Morphew, citing three counts of loss of consortium, seeks damages of more than $150,000, plus costs.
The plaintiff is represented by Sean P. Driscoll, of the Clifford Law Offices P.C., in Chicago.
Cook County Circuit Court Case No. 2015L006722