Drunken man awarded $2.3M for losing leg in subway

New York, Feb 18 (ANI): A drunken man, who lost his leg after he fell on the track of a subway train, has been awarded a whopping 2.3 million dollars by a Manhattan jury, which blamed NYC Transit for the accident.

Brooklyn resident Dustin Dibble, 25, confessed that he'd been boozing with friends for four hours before he fell on the tracks at the 14th Street Station, where a train accident cost him his right leg.

Official records revealed that Dibble had a .18 blood-alcohol level at the time of accident, more than double the legal limit if he were driving.

Dibble also said that he was so drunk that he didn't remember anything about the 1:50 a.m. accident.

In fact, he didn't even remember how he ended up on the tracks, but the jury still found he didn't bear the majority of the blame.

Dibble's lawyer, Andrew Smiley, said that the NYC Transit was the bigger culprit because a driver is supposed to stop the train if he sees a big mass in front of the train.

"A subway- train operator is obligated to stop a subway train before it strikes a large object on the tracks, even if it is not known that the object is actually an intoxicated person," the New York Post quoted Smiley as saying.

Train operator Michael Moore, a long-time MTA vet with a sparkling record, said in a deposition: "I saw what I thought was garbage on the track" and continued into the station.

He added: "I saw movement and I put the train into emergency" - meaning he hit the emergency brake."

When asked whether his client's drunkenness was one of the major reasons of the accident, Smiley said, "We never disputed that."

"It was just an accident [but] it wasn't my choice to lose my leg," said Dibble.

While a spokesman for NYC Transit, Paul Fleuranges, said that lawyers were reviewing the February 9 verdict, Mayor Bloomberg's office declined comment.

The jury returned a 3.5 million dollars verdict in Dibble's favour, but also found him 35 percent responsible.

Thus, Dibble will now collect 2,336,713 dollars. (ANI)