Mofya, a 27 year old exchange student from Zimbabwe, was riding Metrolink 111 when it slammed head-on into a Union Pacific freight train in Chatsworth on September 12, 2008, killing 25 and injuring 135. Mofya suffered severe injuries as a result, including internal cuts, burns over a tenth of her body, brain injuries, a badly broken ankle and femur, and a torn corpea. For two months she remained in a coma until she finally awoke on Thanksgiving Day. Mofya was apparently released from the hospital on January 18, 2009 it is reported.
While Mofya is apparently on the road back to recovery, doctors have reported that she will likely never be the same. Mofya may face many more months of physical and mental rehabilitation before she will regain the ability to walk, write, read and speak. Commenting on this tragic and highly publicized train crash is Stephen Solomon, partner with the Playa Del Rey, California law firm Solomon, Saltsman & Jamieson and co-host of the weekly television show Legal Help Live, stating that claims against train or railway companies present unique challenges, not the least of which is a 200 million dollar cap on all damages for all persons in the aggregate. Whether or not the 200 million dollar cap is applicable to the wrongful death claims or is just applicable to the injury claims remains to be determined.
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