Haven't had much time to spend on The Thunder Child in the past few days, I've been working on the Clive Francis website and the Ghost Guns Virginia website.
Read in the Daily Press today, October 30, 2006, that Norfolk Souther and Amtrak have been found 'at fault' in an electrocution case, and awarded two men $24.2 million dollars.
IN 2002, two 17 year old boys *trespassed*, i.e. illegally entered an Amtrak yard in Lancastar PA, touched overhead power lines, and were burned over much of their bodies as a result.
And, gee whiz, Amtrak didn't post warning signs saying those power lines were dangerous, so they were negligent, so they should have to pay those two poor boys millions of dollars.
And I'm thinking to myself - those two boys were *trespassing* on private property. They were where they weren't supposed to be, where they had no right to be. Why should there have been warning signs telling illegal intruders not to touch overhead wires? And if they were stupid enough to touch them (although apparently all they did was get near them, and the electricity coursed over) - what happened was their own fault.
But of course, that's not the way it is in the United States. Doesn't matter if someone enters somewhere illegally - if they're hurt on that property through their own stupidity, the property owner is going to have to pay because he, or she, is the one with the money.
Stupid. Sad. So much for personal responsibility.
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