Personal Injury Law

NYC Worker Finds Helmet Saved His Life, Despite 60-Day Coma

By mbrickley

According to the New York Daily News, a transit worker who was helping fix an elevated train platform in Brooklyn three years ago fell 30 feet through some unsupported wooden beams and ended up in a two-month coma.

George Nunez was recently awarded $13 million from a personal injury lawsuit he filed against the Metropolitan Transit Authority, who failed to alert Nunez that the beams he was standing on were not safely supported.

Lawyers from the MTA will try to refute the lawsuit, according to the Daily News, because they claim the accident is Nunez’s fault - if he had been properly secured by his safety harness, he never would have fallen in the first place.

Nunez rightfully filed a personal injury lawsuit against the MTA, and was compensated for his pain, suffering and time.

The question remains, who is correct? Is the MTA at fault because they failed to tell Nunez about the known-to-be-unsupported beams, or is Nunez at fault because his safety harness wasn’t properly fastened?

For now the judge has ruled on the side of Nunez, but if the MTA strikes back, that could change.

Full post as published by The Injury Blog on June 15, 2009 (boomark / email).