Posted on 11/25/2025 9:33:50 PM PST by dennisw
A student tourist whose left arm and left leg were severed when she fainted and tumbled in front of a Brooklyn subway train has landed a nearly $82 million jury verdict.
Luisa Janssen Harger Da Silva of Brazil was awarded the massive sum last week in Brooklyn federal court over her rail horror in 2016, when she was 21.
Da Silva was on a platform with her boyfriend when she fainted and fell onto the Atlantic Avenue tracks, where an oncoming train ran her over.
Nearly a decade later, a jury sided with her and her legal team in finding that the MTA failed to take the issue of people falling onto train tracks seriously.
The woman’s suit argued the MTA had 15 years of data showing “that it was a moral certainty that innocent people, such as the plaintiff, would fall onto the tracks if the Authorities did not take steps to install platform edge safety devices.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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Getting drunk pays!
Last year, another man who lost an arm and leg when he drunkenly fell on the tracks and was hit by a subway train was initially awarded a staggering $90 million by a jury. The award was knocked down by a judge in June to just under $40 million.
Yeah, but it literally cost her an arm and a leg.
Have to count blessings. I’d pick to have my limbs any day over that kind of money. Don’t know the context but any public-funded negligence should be punished and fine to fullest degree.
I’ve often heard many amputees (not all) have to learn how to deal with Phantom Pain (feeling the sensation of pain where your now missing limb used to connect to your body).
I believe that description is correct.
fined*
Terrible that’s why it’s important to not just take into account the death toll, when it comes to war - but to understand how severe the nature of wounds can be.
The most awful site of all is if a veteran amputee homeless on the streets, sometimes in a wheelchair sometimes not. :( They don’t get much extra lifelong help or compensation.
Unless somebody pushed her in front of a train, it doesnt take much to stay away from the edge.
Yet if you are stabbed to death or lit on fire by thugs while inside the subway, the MTA is not responsible?
Back around 2010 I tore my rotator cuff and supraspinatus tendon, and had a bunch of appointments at orthopedics at Balboa Naval Hospital. The number of guys there missing limbs, some multiple, was a disturbing reminder of the cost of war. Some had disfiguring burn scars or just scars, blindness, etc. Most had a surprisingly positive attitude, though I imaging years of suffering might wear that down a bit. It certainly put my injury in perspective. Those that gave so much deserve much more than they receive. We shouldn't need organizations like Wounded Warriors.
He shoukd have won at least something as he had no leg to stand on
Every effing idiot that would give an arm and a leg for 41 million each holdup your hand.
You saw what was lost in war. I grieve for their loss they earned more than they get. God love them they are the best next to the ones that didn’t get home. Screwing up stupid isn’t the same as getting hurt in war. Some gave all, all gave some. I feel bad that bad things happen to dumb people. I grieve heavy for those I severed with. Don a uniform for your country and take the oath. You own it,it owns you. Till the day you die. “God, Country, Counstituion”. I swore it in 1971 and I’ll die defending it today.
Crazy. Big lawyer payday.
Getting a large jury award is one thing. They happen all the time. The attorneys during voir dire pick the stupidest and most biased idiots out of the jury pool. Collecting on it is quite another. Appeals can drag on for years. Hundreds of judgments go unpaid all the time. She might be 50 years old before she sees one penny of this and it will only be for a fraction of the absurdly large amount the idiot jury came up with. They would have had better liuck collecting on it with a much smaller award. But no. Dumb is dumb. Our system of “justice” is anything but. This person didn’t faint. How the hell do you prove somebody fainted? Substance abuse. We have to be the dumbest country on the face of the planet.
In other news, it was reported that a conversation was overheard in a Manhattan members only club whereas an attorney refused to collect a cool $100k on a bet that he could not only assign blame for the lack of train platform barriers - which haven’t existed since rails were first laid in the 19th century for passenger trains pulled by steam locomotives - but that he could garner a massive sum from the court.
“Bob, never in a thousand years did I believe you’d win this case. I mean, seriously: C’mon. Take the money!!!”
“Joe, keep your $100k. Look what I won for her, man.”
It was also reported that Bob was heard laughing all the way to the bank...
Other people paying for a person’s stupidity...it’s the American way.
I've ridden on transit systems in various parts of the world...including Europe and Asia. I can't recall where I saw them but I've seen at least one or two systems (maybe more) that had gate-type barriers at the edge of the platform which prevented people from getting onto the tracks and only opened when a train arrived and had *its* doors opened.
There's one thing for damn sure...when I ride the NYC subway system I always stand against a wall while waiting for the train so that some mental patient doesn't push me onto the tracks.
Lost his left arm and left leg but he’s alright now. *badum ching*. I’ll see myself out.
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