My question still stands. Anyone have some statistics on actual successful lawsuits by ‘uninvited riders’ against railroads or operating personnel and the awards paid out?
Don’t know if such a record would exist, and if it did, unless it included the incidents where the railroad and plaintiff settled before court, which is normal, it would not be very representative.
Because it is often less expensive to pay the plaintiff a settlement than to continue in a court battle, and because it is easy for a fairly good plaintiff attorney to play the “little guy vs. the big bad railroad” routine, juries historically side with and reward the “victims” in the few suits that actually make court.
I don’t think people who ride the freights fit into a neat category, although many seem to have something in common, including a deep commitment as if it were a cause.
I looked at a bunch of reference online about this topic, and am somewhat amazed at emotional depth, the stoic resignation, a quest for something beyond security, the glory moments, the commitment, the melancholy, and the deep sadness.
Some of these stories are very compelling writing, and maybe not exactly what you would expect:
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Well it’s about friggin’ time!
Twenty-six years old, old enough to know better and he doesn’t. How pathetic.
and had to call Mommy!
Looks like slim Jim got away though… Reminds me of an old parable… when two hikers were confronted by an angry bear the slimmer hiker started running away. The fatter hiker yelled “you’ll never outrun that bear!” The slim hiker shouted back “I don’t have to…I only have to outrun you”.
You know, a movie could be made out of an idea like that. Two kids in a freight yard, wondering what’s in a box car painted “Acme Fountain Pens.” The cops come, one gets away and the other one gets caught and goes to reform school. The one who didn’t get away eventually becomes a gangster and goes to the electric chair and the one who got away becomes a priest and near the end says to the gang, “Let’s all say a prayer for a boy who couldn’t run as fast as I could.”