Oct 27, 2006 11:06 am US/Eastern
Former State Senator To Sue LIRR Over Gap
NEW YORK (AP) ―
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Ex-NYS Senator Carol Berman plans to sue the LIRR after breaking her leg when she fell into the Lawrence Station gap between the platform and the train.
CBS
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The MTA has posted signs like this one at Penn Station in the wake of several gap-related incidents.
Gregg Geller
A former state senator who broke her leg after falling into a platform gap at a Long Island Rail Road station has filed a $1 million notice of claim against the railroad and its parent company, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Carol Berman, 83, said she hoped "to increase the pressure on the railroad and the MTA to actually fix this gap."
Berman said she fell through a 10-inch gap at the Lawrence station last month, breaking her left leg.
The former legislator filed her notice of legal action with the agencies on Thursday. Also this week, the father of a Minnesota teenager killed in an August gap fall said he planned to sue the LIRR and the MTA.
The MTA said it does not comment on pending litigation.
The LIRR has already elevated the tracks at the Shea Stadium stop in Queens, and moved them as much as 4.5 inches toward the platform. Similar changes will be made in at least seven other stations.
Peter Smead, the father of Natalie Smead of Northfield, Minn., has said he intends to seek $5 million in damages in his daughter's death. The 18-year-old woman slipped through an almost foot-wide gap as she was getting off a westbound train at Woodside, Queens, and was struck by a train.
Another woman, Sheila Rann, 67, a former Rockette who was paralyzed after falling through a gap in Forest Hills, Queens, has a $50 million suit pending against the MTA.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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