Lawsuit: Boy Broke Both Legs After Conductor Closed Subway Doors, Dragging Him 40 Feet Down Platform
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Brooklyn mother is suing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for $22 million after she says her son got trapped in the gap at a subway station in Brooklyn and was dragged by a train last year, causing serious injuries.
Bandaged and bound to a hospital bed, 9-year-old J.C. Capers' mom says he broke both femurs when a subway dragged him more than 40 feet in East New York.
"He was laying on the platform with his clothes ripped off, his leg split open with flesh coming out his legs. It was a bad scene," J.C.'s mom, Melissa, said.
Melissa filed suit this week against the MTA and New York City Transit for the incident that happened last December in the middle of the day on the L train platform at the Atlantic Avenue station. She says J.C. was trying to get on the train with her husband when the doors literally closed on her son and the train started moving.
She says J.C.'s legs fell into the gap.
"I was in shock," Melissa said. "He was just laying there crying and shaking. I didn't know what to do, I was so scared."
Melissa says her son spent nearly three weeks in the hospital, had two surgeries, and used a wheelchair for nine months so his legs could heal before finally learning to walk again.
The family attorney says it never should have happened.
"While we all want to get to and from our location, I think safety has to be paramount," attorney Edward Streinberg said. "It clearly was not in this case."
The nine-year-old was too shy to speak on camera. He's walking again, but his mom says the process has been far from easy.
"He couldn't believe it happened, all he do is cry and have nightmares at night about the train," Melissa said.
CBS2 did reach out to the MTA regarding the lawsuit, but a spokesperson declined to comment. The family says the train operator and conductor should have made sure the doors were free of any passengers before they closed.