Woman Sues Family Of Teenager Killed By Train After She Was Injured By His Flying Body Parts

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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

A man 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

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 a state appeals court disagreed. It found that 'it was reasonably foreseeable' that the high-speed train would kill Joho and fling his body toward a platform where people were waiting.

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

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 who had left him at the station that morning had previously filed her own suit.

The lawsuit claimed Metra and the Canadian Pacific Railway were negligent because Joho was not warned that what he thought was his Metra train was in fact an express Amtrak train.

The Metra train 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 he is seeking to appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court.