Re: Fan trips before lawyers

It is easy to blame the lawyers, and the U.S. has the highest per capita number in the world. But the prevailing attatude among the general population seems to be that the world owes them a living, and they are unwilling to accept responsability for their own actions. This attitude is generally backed up by the courts, particularly where juries are involved. Quite some years ago now, a friend sat on the trial of a tort claim by an injured S. P. brakeman against the railroad. During the trial it came out that the brakeman actually caused the accident while disobeying the rule book. The jury awarded him some money anyway, though not as much as he was asking.

In the tourist railroad business we live in constant fear of a passenger getting hurt through their own stupidity. In the 1970's we had an inebriated passenger climb from the lead excursion car to the back of the locomotive and jump down into the cab. Had I been the engineer I would have stopped at once and marched him back to the last car, in full view of his friends, with instructions not to move until we reached we reached the terminal.

We have operated for 31 years without an accident, and a large part of our operating budget is liability insurance. If we ever injured or killed a passenger, regardless of the cause, we would be out of business as we would be unable to afford the insurance premium, not to mention a tort claim.