Violinist Dragged by Metra Train Recovers $35 Million After Her Leg Was Lost in Closing Doors

On the morning of January 16, 1995, Rachel Barton, a 20-year-old professional violinist, boarded a northbound Metra commuter train at Ravenswood on her way to teach at a music school in Winnetka. At the Winnetka stop she stepped off carrying a violin case with a shoulder strap, a book bag, a purse and a bag of food. The case caught on the vestibule poles, and while she reorganized her things the doors closed on the strap. She called out for help. The train pulled away without a conductor confirming that the platform was clear, and she was dragged about 366 feet along the ground beside the tracks.

The injuries were severe. Her left leg was amputated below the knee, and her right leg lost skin and soft tissue from mid-thigh to mid-leg, with a large gap in the bone below the knee and the loss of her toes. She underwent about 25 surgeries between 1995 and 1998 and attended hundreds of medical, prosthetics and rehabilitation appointments. She lives with phantom pain and recurring skin breakdown, uses crutches, a wheelchair and prosthetics, and could not return to a career as a concert violinist.

The case went to trial in Cook County against the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company, which operated the train, and Metra, which owned the equipment. Robert Clifford, who represented Barton, told the jury the accident was 'an event waiting to happen.' The evidence showed the railroad relied on a door light system that signaled when the doors had closed but left a gap where a passenger could be pinned. It had not adopted the 'second look' practice, in which a conductor visually checks the platform before departure, even though the railroad knew of at least 14 earlier incidents of passengers trapped in train doors between 1990 and 1994. Metra used the second look on lines it ran itself but did not require it on the lines it contracted out.

On March 1, 1999, the jury returned about $29.6 million in compensatory damages and $900,000 in punitive damages. It assigned 62.5 percent of the fault to the railroad, 33 percent to Metra and 4.5 percent to Barton. The compensatory award included $9 million for disability, $8 million for disfigurement, $8 million for pain and suffering and $3 million for future pain and suffering, along with medical costs and lost earnings. After the 4.5 percent reduction, the judgment came to about $28.7 million in compensatory damages and about $860,000 in punitive damages.

The defendants moved for a new trial, citing a juror who had not disclosed her own pending injury lawsuit, and challenged the punitive award and Metra's liability. The trial court denied the motions in June 1999. On September 14, 2001, the Illinois Appellate Court, First District, affirmed, holding that Metra could not hand its safety duties to the contractor, that the evidence supported the finding of willful and wanton conduct, and that the defendants had not shown prejudice from the juror issue.

In March 2002 the railroads agreed to pay $35 million, a figure that included the interest that had accumulated on the judgment since the verdict.