Ossining Man Paralyzed in Train Crash Suing for $100M
An Ossining man who was paralyzed in the December derailment of a Metro-North Railroad train that killed four commuters is suing for $100 million to ensure his future medical care.
Samuel Rivera, 39, a Metro-North mechanic, was traveling to New York City on the morning of December 1 with his son, Sam Jr., 14, when the train, traveling 82 miles per hour on a 30 miles per hour curve in the Bronx, flew off the tracks.
His son was not injured, but Rivera was left a quadriplegic with no use of his legs or fingers or control of his abdominal area. During a news conference Wednesday at Burke Rehabilitation Hospital in White Plains, where he is receiving therapy, Rivera told reporters he doesn’t blame the engineer, William Rockefeller, who allegedly dosed off at the controls, for his predicament.
“I do forgive Mr. Rockefeller,” Rivera said. “People made mistakes. I’ve made mistakes. His mistake ended up as a major tragedy.”
In his lawsuit, which was filed April 8 in state court in the Bronx, Rivera and his wife, Jessica, accuse Metro-North and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of negligence. Rivera said he was seeking the judgment to cover his health expenses that will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.
Since the accident, Rivera’s attorney, Gregory Cannata, said Metro-North has been paying for renovations to Rivera’s home to make it handicapped-accessible.
Two other local men on their way to work in Manhattan were among the four people killed in the derailment. James Lovell, 58, a resident of Cold Spring, the father of four children and husband of a Philipstown councilwoman, and James Ferrari, 59, a resident of Montrose and the married father of a female college sophomore, both died at the scene near the Spuyten Duyvil station.
Lovell was a freelance media consultant who took the early train Sunday morning in order to prepare for the Rockefeller Center tree lightning. Ferrari worked as an office building supervisor in Manhattan.
To date, seven lawsuits have been filed against Metro-North over the accident, and 80 notices of claim. More than 100 passengers were on the train, and 70 reportedly were injured.
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