Four-Eight-Four [dot org]

Sorry for the lack of updates. It’s been a busy week. My grandfather is in the hospital. A friend’s mother died on Wednesday. Another friend has a three-year-old granddaughter in the hospital with a serious heart condition that will require surgery. Rachel had a friend come and visit on Wednesday; today she saw two other college friends, and my old friend Brian and his wife Chris came to town for the weekend. So … a week of ups and downs.

I do have a couple of short posts in the works … maybe I will finish them tomorrow. I may be able to post some pictures, if I can convince my camera to allow me to download them from the internal memory.

Now, on to the juicy stuff … I just read this on MSNBC:

PHILADELPHIA - A federal jury awarded $24.2 million to two men who were severely burned by electrical wires when they trespassed onto railroad property and climbed atop a rail car. Jeffrey Klein and Brett Birdwell, who were 17 at the time of the accident, sued Amtrak and Norfolk Southern Corp. after being burned by a 12,500-volt electrical wire in Lancaster in August 2002. In their lawsuit, they argued that the companies should have placed warning signs alerting people to the wires, which power locomotives.

So, lemme get this straight … an easy ticket to being a millionaire:

1. Trespass.
2. Get Hurt.
3. Sue.

In one sense, I’m amazed. On the other hand … in a world where a grandmother sues people who joke about her fruitcake and a woman (successfully) sues McDonald’s when she is burned by hot coffee … I shouldn’t be surprised.

I suppose the fact that the railroads had “no trespassing” signs (at least I’m assuming they did … whenever I’ve been around railroad property, there were “no trespassing” signs all over the place) wasn’t good enough. And why would they have such signs up, and a “no trespassing” policy? Ummm … maybe because the property was dangerous? Hmmmm.

Wow.

Read More: $24.2 million for men burned atop rail car