ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 16, 1996 TAG: 9607160066
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
Two years after the Mill Mountain Zoo's miniature train flipped over, spilling its load of passengers to the ground, a Roanoke man who was injured is suing the Zoo Choo.
In a lawsuit filed Friday in Roanoke Circuit Court, Edward A. Kawamura is seeking $500,000 in damages from the Roanoke Jaycees, which owns and operates the miniature railroad.
The Zoo Choo's engineer - named as "John Doe" in the lawsuit because his identity was not known - is accused of running the train too fast for its circular route through the zoo.
"Trains just don't derail and flip over unless the person who's running it screwed up," said Harvey Lutins, a Roanoke lawyer who filed the lawsuit.
The train derailed as it entered a tunnel the afternoon of July 15, 1994, and one of the two open-topped passenger cars flipped on its side. Of the three adults and 13 children who were treated at Roanoke hospitals, Kawamura was the most seriously injured.
Kawamura, who was riding the train with his 2-year-old daughter, suffered a deep cut to his right leg after being pinned under the capsized car and then dragged along the rail bed. His lawsuit states that he was subjected to "severe slashing cuts, disfigurement ... great fright, horror, embarrassment, inconvenience, humiliation and emotional distress."
The accident closed the Zoo Choo down for nearly two years, as the Jaycees investigated the cause of the derailment and hired a miniature-train specialist to insure that it would not happen again.
In June, the train resumed its route chugging around the zoo, after the Jaycees, the city and the zoo worked out an agreement to operate it. The train is a major source of income for the Jaycees, which has operated it since 1952.
The president of the Jaycees could not be reached for comment Monday. Kawamura also could not be reached.
"Hopefully," Lutins said, "they have learned from their mistakes, and people will be safe when they climb aboard."
LENGTH: Short : 45 linesby CNB