Following article is from The Courier-News for 4-22-09.
Piscataway man gets $1.2 million settlement in railroad injury case
By KEN SERRANO
Staff Writer
A former switchman for Raritan Central Railway at Raritan Center in Edison who severely injured his knee in a fall in July 2004 settled with the company for $1.25 million.
Christopher Hughes, 31, of Piscataway contended that the company failed to provide him with adequate training and instructed him to jump from moving trains.
He suffered a disabling injury, resulting in several operations and eventually a knee replacement.
The case settled Monday, April 20, the day it was set to go to trial in Superior Court, New Brunswick, said his attorney, James Curran of Milltown.
Curran said Hughes destroyed the top of his tibia in the fall. He has not returned to work since the accident, Curran said.
"He's in a lot of pain. He'll have to have knee replacement surgeries every 15 years," he said.
Christopher Hoare, a Mount Laurel attorney representing the railway company, said, "We're glad it was settled amicably so the whole thing didn't have to be relived at trial."
The company services only Raritan Center, moving boxcars to and from warehouses and setting them up for freight trains to transport, the attorneys said.