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Can police be sued for negligence if it resulted in a person's death?
Anonymous5 views7 answers
I have inside knowledge that the local police was called about a person hiding in a train tunnel and sitting in the middle of the tracks, most likely wanting to commit suicide. The police were called and they kicked him out and told the local railway to go ahead and run trains through the tunnel like normal. Within an hour later the first train went through the tunnel and a man was struck and killed. My thoughts are, if the person who was killed was the same person who the police kicked out initially, is the police now at fault for not taking the person to the local hospital the first time around since he was suicidal, which would have prevented his death? If so, I would want the victim's family to know of this circumstance.
There are just a few too many what-ifs in this fact pattern. Did the police know he was truly suicidal? Was the same guy that was kicked out the same one that came back? If they knew the person was suicidal, they would likely have called mental health professionals to the scene. I think this will be hard to prove.
Highly unlikely. The most difficult element to prove would probably be "special duty". Query; was the person who acquired the knowledge in a position to prevent?
Nope. Bring this case and the City will likely win on summary judgment. In order to prevail here, you'd have to demonstrate that the police had a "special duty" to prevent the man from commuting suicide. the courts have held that they do not.
Most likely not. For the police to be liable for the man's death, assuming it was the same man, their needed to be a "special relationship" created by the police officer's actions in favor of the now deceased man while he was alive, and which the man "justifiably relied" to his detriment. I don't see a likely scenario for that to have happened here.
They don't have an obligation to assure mental health care. In this case you are saying they have to prevent someone who is bent on suicide from committing it. Maybe the family should own some of this? But don't add to their grief.
Christian K. Lassen IIPersonal Injury LawyerPhiladelphia, PA ·
If they kicked him out of the tunnel, it is unclear how he got hit by a train. You can certainly let the family know any information you may have, and a lawyer can certainly investigate.
