(Newsday.com posted the following Associated Press article on March 20.)
PATERSON, N.J. — A man who seriously injured his hand while working at a Secaucus rail yard three years ago will receive $324,800 in damages from a Pennsylvania railroad equipment company.
A Passaic County jury ruled this week that Ralph Lozada, 51, of Paterson, should get $560,000 from Harsco Track Technologies for lost wages, pain and suffering and medical expenses. However, the company will only be liable for 58 percent of that amount.
His employer, the New York Susquehanna and Western Railway Corporation of Cooperstown, N.Y., would have been liable for the remaining 42 percent of the award, but it reached an undisclosed settlement with Lozada before the trial started.
Lozada was working near a railroad tie extractor machine on Feb. 21, 2000, when he slipped and fell in a flooded area of the rail yard near the Meadowlands, according to his lawyer, James De Norscia. As he slipped, Lozada reached out with his left hand to catch himself, and his hand was pinned in a hydraulic cylinder that was part of the machinery. His index finger and thumb were crushed and the finger eventually was amputated.
In his suit, Lozada claimed the extractor machine had a faulty design because it failed to guard the hydraulic cylinder. He has since returned to work, but his work abilities have been severely limited.