As long as dumb asses do not step in front of speeding trains, passengers standing on a platform will not be likely to be hit by dismembered body parts.
Again, please see Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co. (Nineteen Twenty-Eight).
The negligence of the dumb ass caused the harm to the woman on the platform, not AMTRACK.
And the woman is not suing the family.
She is suing the ESTATE of the dumb ass.
1) Let me say you are a kind person for calling the dead guy a dumb ass.
2) Wouldn't the family now be his estate?
3) I'm ashamed this is what society has evolved to.
4) Who gives a shit if presidence exists making Amtrack guiltless. I personally will never ride on them ever, even given a free ticket. I hope the backlash from this gives them tons of lost sales. The proper thing to have done would have been for Amtrack to pay for some or all the lady's medical bills. Then given the lady a year pass. Finally say they are truely horrified by the incident, and even though they aren't to blame, the will implement procedures to eliminate as best possible this from happening again.
5) If the lady really is strapped for cash that she needs the money to live for her bills paid, tell the family and they should help to the best of their ability.
It shouldn't have ever come to this. That this is considered acceptable is sickening. If you knew me, you'd know I'm the biggest supporter of laissez-faire capitalism. But this is about human decency. There are just certain things you should do, even when not required. I'm all for not being forced human decenvy, but that still doesn't absolve you from being an asshole.
This is the very reason I despise Ayn Rand. Her.philosophy of not being responsible automatically makes you a hero for saying the "dumb ass" deserved what he got. You aren't to show pity. You can then hold your head high for taking what she considered the moral way, which means never getting taken advantage of. Showing compassion meant being taken advantage of.
That is a shitty way to live life. I'm an atheist too, and still know it's wrong. This is the real reason the occupy wall street exist. It's not because corporations are evil, or the government for supporting them. It's society for being amoral assholes. For people only caring about the law or how to circumvent it. For only doing what you're required and nothing more. Those are the reasons we're fucked. It's not we're over taxed, hyper inflation, crony capitalism nor any other externality. It's because WE as people as a whole do it to ourself. Neither Obama nor Paul will make it better or worse. There's no hope and change or revolution. The happening in this thread is the cause. We're doomed to fall like the Roman empire, who also thought the same.