A lawsuit happy passenger with cerebral palsy on a LIRR train has decided that telling everyone that the train was held up because they needed to help him get off the train is grounds enough to sue.
In the suit, Faggiani says he notified a conductor as he boarded that he would need a ramp to get off. But the conductor apparently forgot, and when Faggiani arrived at his station, his father had to summon help. That’s when they heard the announcement that the train would be delayed because of a “wheelchair patient.” Faggiani tells Newsday, “He just kept emphasizing ‘wheelchair,’ ‘wheelchair,’ ‘wheelchair.’ You could just imagine all those eyes staring at me.”
Apparently Faggiani objected to the rest of the train being told that his special need for assistance in leaving the train was the reason for the delay, and objected to the fact that he was in a wheelchair being pointed out to other riders. For that “embarassment,” Mr. Faggiani is seeking “unspecified damages.”
I wonder how much money makes all that horrible pain and humiliation go away?
(Photo courtesy of LIRRhistory.com)