Woman sues family of teenager killed by train - after she was injured by his flying body parts



A teenager killed while crossing train tracks can be sued for injuries caused to a woman on the platform, when one of his severed body parts hit her, a court has ruled.

Hiroyuki Joho, 18, died when he ran in front of a 70mph Amtrak train at Edgebrook Metra station in Chicago in 2008. It was pouring with rain and the teen had an umbrella over his head.



His body was severed on impact, and a large part became airborne, flying about 100 feet onto the southbound platform, where it hit a commuter.



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Tragic: Hiroyuki Joho, 18, died when he ran in front of a 70mph Amtrak train at Edgebrook Metra station in Chicago in 2008

Gayane Zokhrabov, 58, was knocked to the ground, her leg and wrist broken and her shoulder injured, the Chicago Tribune reported.



A Cook County court judge initially dismissed Zokhrabov's lawsuit against the boy's estate, ruling that Joho could not possibly have anticipated Zokhrabov's injuries.

But ruling in what it called a 'tragically bizarre' case, a state appeals court disagreed.

It found that 'it was reasonably foreseeable' that the high-speed train would kill the college hopeful and fling his body toward a platform where people were waiting.

Loved: Hiroyuki Joho, known as Hiro was a popular member of his high school class who played in the tennis and soccer teams. Left, as a baby. Right, Hiro with a friend

Lawyer Leslie Rosen, who handled Zokhrabov's appeal, argued that the case was a straightforward negligence case, albeit with 'very peculiar and gory and creepy' circumstances.

'If you do something as stupid as this guy did, you have to be responsible for what comes from it,' she said.

The teenager's mother Jeung-Hee Park, had left the bright high-school student at the station that morning.



Seeing what he thought was his local train approaching and expecting it to slow down, Joho went to cross a same-level pedestrian walkway across the tracks to get to the right side of the track.

But in fact Joho's train was delayed by the bad weather, his mother's lawyer Keith Davidson said.



The train which hit him was an Amtrak high speed express speeding at 70mph towards the city centre.



Park had previously filed her own suit claiming that Metra and the Canadian Pacific Railway were negligent

Gruesome: Joho's body was severed on impact, and a large part became airborne, flying about 100 feet onto the southbound platform, where it hit commuter Gayane Zokhrabov, 58

Struck down: Gayane Zokhrabov, 58, waiting on the platform at Edgebrook, was knocked to the ground, her leg and wrist broken and her shoulder injured

The express Amtrak train had overtaken his Metra train which was running late that morning, but no announcement was made on the platform, the suit said.



But a Cook County judge ruled that the railway companies had no compulsion to warn people about such an 'open and obvious danger' as a travelling train. The decision was upheld on appeal



Keith Davidson, one of Park's attorneys, said that the crossing where of high speed trains cross a slow commuter train track is inherently hazardous.



The whistle that warns people to keep clear is no longer in use and the view of the track is partly blocked by foliage, he said.



ANOTHER TRAGEDY JUST TWO MONTHS LATER

Two months after Joho's death, another person was killed while crossing the same Edgebrook station tracks in Chicago.

Joyce Chiriboga, 48, died after being hit while following her sister across the tracks. A Metra engineer had allegedly failed to keep lookout and blow the horn in time.

The case was settled for an undisclosed amount

He said: 'It really reflects a failure of the courts to get to grips with the limits of cognition and human reaction.



'It has been shown that objects, in this case as train, approaching from a distance from a wide angle appear to be going much more slowly than they are.

'Hiroyuki would have thought he had plenty of time to cross the track.'

Lawyers for Mrs Park are seeking a further appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court.

The popular teen known to friends and friends as Hiro- was a member of the soccer and tennis teams, a dancer and demonstrated Taiko Japanese drumming on International culture days.

Classmates paid tribute to him as Northside's 'Hero' and remembered him as a kind, friendly boy who enjoyed making people laugh. He had been especially kind to foreign exchange students, inviting them to hang out at his house.



At the time of the accident, Tiffany Monreal told Hoof Beat, the newspaper at Northside College Prep: 'He made everyone smile as he joked around, and his jokes were never hurtful. He always meant them with the truest sense of humor.'



Tennis team partner Roldan Alegre said: 'He was always smiling and laughing, a very happy person. Many people loved him. He had an enormous amount of friends.'





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