Woman Crushed by Travel Companion Wins Suit

A resident of Saratov region successfully sued a railroad company for damages she sustained when a passenger fell onto her from an upper sleeping berth of a train car, local prosecutors said.

The incident took place in April in a train bound for Moscow from Saratov in the Volga federal district and landed the woman, whose name was withheld, in hospital for a month, the prosecutors said on their website on Friday. They did not elaborate on her injuries.

The state-owned Federal Passenger Company insisted the passenger on the upper tier was to blame, but numerous witnesses said in court the berth was malfunctioning from the start of the journey.

They also said the train crew offered no medical help to the woman and simply proposed that she get off the train. But she was given a shot of painkillers by one of the passengers and continued her trip to Moscow, where she was hospitalized.

The court awarded the woman 80,000 rubles ($2,700) in damages, and fined the company another 40,000 rubles over the incident.

No information was available on whether the passenger from the upper berth sustained any injuries in the fall.

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