$4M Settlement for Wife of MTA Worker Electrocuted in Fatal Fall
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$4 Million Settlement In MTA Death Case The wife of a deceased Mass Transit Authority worker who died on the job in 2010 has accepted a $4 million settlement over his death. According to the New York Daily News, the $4 million settlement was proposed by the MTA on the eve of a trial that was to start this week. Jackie Knell had argued in her liability lawsuit against the MTA that the Authority was ultimately responsible for her husband's death in 2010. The Daily News recalls that Knell's husband, James, slipped and fell from an elevated portion of the A Line onto a rail that was already receiving electricity. When Knell fell, he was immediately hit with more than 600 volts of electricity that stopped his heart. According to details in the case provided by the Daily News, Knell knew he was about to be fatally electrocuted based on his his final words, blurted out as he slipped. The MTA had already been found negligent in the case and had been cited over the incident by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), according to the Daily News. A judge in Queens, N.Y., backed that claim from OSHA and said that the MTA had failed to protect Knell from fatal injuries because it resupplied the rail line with electricity before work had been completed.
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