THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 14, 1995 TAG: 9505140045
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ROANOKE LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
A jury has ordered Norfolk Southern Corp. to pay a former brakeman $2.6 million after he sued claiming that the noise of locomotives and train whistles left him with a hearing problem that drove him crazy.
Lawyers for Allan Couch told the Roanoke Circuit Court jury that the persistent roaring in Couch's ears made him insane.
``It just drove him crazy; he couldn't handle it anymore,'' said Willard Moody, a Portsmouth lawyer who represented Couch.
The railroad's lawyers declined to comment after the verdict was reached Friday evening. Company lawyers have said that Roanoke juries have a tendency to return excessive awards against the railroad in on-the-job injury lawsuits.
Since 1990, Roanoke juries have awarded more than $8 million to eight other injured workers.
The verdicts ranged from $4.7 million for a signalman injured when a metal door slammed shut on him to $250,000 for a clerk who fell out of his chair. Half those verdicts, however, were overturned on appeals.
According to testimony in the Couch case, tinnitus, or the roaring in Couch's ears, pushed him into states of deep depression and psychosis.
Railroad lawyers argued that Couch was mentally ill all along, and that he became increasingly paranoid - to the point that he believed that agents for the railroad were hiding in storm sewers and behind trees to spy on him.
Couch's lawsuit was just one of hundreds that have been filed against the railroad by injured employees under the Federal Employer's Liability Act. There also have been dozens of hearing-loss cases filed in Roanoke, but Couch's case was unusual in that he blamed the railroad for his mental illness.
``I believe that the ringing in my ears has been so dramatic that I cannot tolerate anything today,'' he told the jury.
Couch's lawyers argued that the railroad knew for years that the air horns, whistles and engines on its locomotives caused dangerously high noise levels, but did not require engineers and brakemen to wear ear protection until 1990.
That was too late for Couch, who worked for the railroad from 1970 to 1992, they said.
But Robert Schneider, a Pittsburgh lawyer who represented the railroad, said the company needed to conduct a comprehensive study before requiring employees to wear ear plugs.
He said there was additional concern that workers wearing earplugs might not be able to hear safety warnings.
The railroad ``did not want to kill anybody,'' Schneider said.
KEYWORDS: LAWSUITS by CNB