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SYDNEY - When Leigh Ann Russell saw a boy jump onto a moving freight train on a Sydney rail line, she thought, "I could do this too".
But the intellectually handicapped hairdresser, now aged 26, panicked as the train gathered speed, and was dragged beside the track after
falling from a ladder on one of the carriages.
Ms Russell, who lost part of her right leg in the 2002 incident, successfully sued the Rail Infrastructure Corporation (RIC) for negligence because it failed to prevent access to the rail line.
She was seeking around A$1 ($1.13) million in damages.
But Supreme Court Justice Virginia Bell today found Ms Russell had contributed to her own injury and halved her payout.
Despite being mildly intellectually handicapped, she "would nonetheless have appreciated that in jumping onto a slow moving goods train she was exposing herself to a risk of serious injury", Justice Bell said.
The court heard that in February 2002, Ms Russell -- who has a reading age of eight -- met a group of boys on her way home from work as an apprentice hairdresser.
They accessed the railway line through a missing panel in a chain link fence at Mascot in Sydney's east.
The boys had been writing graffiti on the cement walls beside the track when one of them jumped onto a ladder attached to a slow-moving goods train.
Ms Russell told the court the boy made it look "like he was a star athlete at it".
"Because he made it look so easy I go, 'I could do this too'," she said, agreeing that she copied him because she wanted to look "cool".
But Ms Russell realised she was in trouble as the train sped up.
She let go of the ladder and was dragged over rocks beside the track, injuring her right leg so badly it had to be amputated below the knee.
Justice Bell said that at the time of the accident the fence had been missing its mesh panel for about six months.
It was repaired twice a year but the rail corridor was frequently used as a shortcut by locals and within days of being mended, the fence would be cut again.
The (RIC) should have known that area was being used as a shortcut and that the chain link fence was ineffective in stopping access, the judge said.
The final amount of damages will be determined tomorrow but Ms Russell is likely to receive about A$500,000.
- AAP
