Originally posted by: Desturel
1) The driver thought it was a piece of garbage on the track, but hit the emergency breaks when he noticed movement, but couldn't stop in time.
2) The reason why the guy won the money is because SOP states that whenever a large object is on the tracks, you should stop.
3) Even in "broad daylight" (directed at sdifox), most subway stops are dark. The majority of them are underground in New York. Likely he was at a station platform which is lighted, but even then visibility isn't the best. That's not to defend the driver who stated he saw the guy, but didn't recognize it was a person until it was too late.
4) If every subway driver stopped whenever they noticed debris on the tracks, subways would run consistently late. I'm sure most drivers don't adhere to SOP 100% of the time, but they aren't exactly trying to kill people either. They are trying to find that happy medium where they aren't late to any given stop, but also where they aren't running over an object that could derail the train.
5) The guy was a lightweight.
6) The driver died shortly before the case went to trial so he never had a chance to defend himself. We don't know what circumstances may have been in place so we can only take the man's word on it. Even then, on his word he said that he was drunk and he can't remember how he got onto the tracks.
So in my opinion, the company has to take part of the blame. There's no way to tell if the accident could have been avoided by stopping immediately since both the person affected and the driver are unable to account for what happened that day. Because of this you have to assume that it could have been avoided if proper safety procedures had been followed. Otherwise the procedures have to be revised.
My feelings are that the verdict should have been 60/40. It's 60 percent the guys fault for getting drunk in the first place, not 35%. It's 40% the drivers fault for not breaking sooner.
It would be somewhat entertaining if the family somehow sued Mr. Dibble stating that the stress from running over his drunk ass lead to Mr. Moore's (the driver) death.
Article with more details