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By Bill Altreuter

Thirty years in the business but there is always something new to see. Today I saw a staged accident, first time ever for me. I'm not sure I've ever handled a case, on either side, as fake as this. Took the bus into work today. I was running behind, so I was noticing every stop, and how inefficiently people were handling their fares. I'm not sure where they got on-- Utica, maybe. There were three people at the stop, a man, a blond woman, and an African-American woman. The man got on first, which struck me, then fumbled around with his fare. The blond went past him-- did she have a pass? When they got on I'd thought that they were together, and they turned out to be. They sat behind me. I was in the second row, on the right side, in the outside seat. I was listening to my iPod, so I couldn't really hear what they were saying, but I could hear that they were speaking oddly loudly, and I got the impression that they were not particularly bright people.

As the bus approached the stop in front of Westminster (is that North?) the man got up and walked past me. The bus stopped. The bus was stopped, and the guy went into a slide as though he was going into second base. He landed on his right side, and started screaming, "My leg, my leg!" I do not recall seeing him holding either leg. This business went on for a couple of minutes. The woman was with him at this point. The driver told them to wait until he'd gotten his passengers onto the bus that was following. The guy was shouting that he wanted an ambulance, and that he wanted something written that said he'd fallen on the bus.People were getting off the bus. I wrote my contact information on a scrap of paper, and exited through the front, making a point of noting the condition of the floor. It was wet (we are having a freak snow storm today, which is the reason I am in town in the first place), but emphatically not slippery. I gave the driver the paper with my contact information, and got on the next bus.

I doubt that anything will come of this, but it will be interesting to see if the NFTA calls me. I know from bitter experience that they are aggressive in the way they defend claims, and this one looked so phoney that I very much doubt that the guy (or the couple, I suppose) will have much luck finding a lawyer to touch it.

Full post as published by Outside Counsel on March 23, 2011 (boomark / email).