
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 8, 1990                   TAG: 9003081885
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

WORKERS SUE NW, CLAIM HEARING LOSS

Fourteen rail workers have filed suit against the Norfolk and Western Railway, claiming that their exposure to excessive noise at the East End and Shaffers Crossing shops in Roanoke led to hearing losses.

In their suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Roanoke, the workers ask for a minimum of $50,000 each in damages.

The workers' hearing was tested between February 1988 and June 1989. Test results showed that each worker "suffered otological injury caused by his work environment," the suit states.

The suit alleges that the workers' "permanent sensory neural hearing loss, deafness and other otological injuries" was a result of NW's negligence and failure to provide a safe place to work and "causing high decibel levels to occur and exist."

The workers are seeking damages for past and future medical and other audiological expenses, loss of earning capacity, past and future physical and emotional pain, suffering and inconvenience and past and future loss of enjoyment of life.

- Staff report

by CNB