A New Jersey teenager who seriously injured his leg after jumping down to the street from a fence around High Line is suing the city for $2.5 million, claiming that he was locked in the park and had no choice. "I crushed my knee, rupturing my ACL, and hurt my back. It really messed me up," 18-year-old Kirk Rasnick told the Daily News. Rasnick claims that the injuries he sustained on June 13 have prevented him from playing football during his senior year at Dickinson High School in Jersey City, and "you can't put a price on that." Except in this case: the price is $2.5 million, which works out to be around $700K per missed pep rally.
Rasnick says he and two friends were lounging around the High Line near 26th Street, "neither drunk nor high," which probably breaks some law about not being high on the High Line. "We saw a patrol go by once around 9 p.m., but that was the last time we saw them. At about 11 o'clock we tried to leave, but the gate was closed." So the boys followed the old adage, "When life gives you a closed gate, you jump right the hell over that sucker."
None of the three high-school age guys had a cell phone, and none of them noticed the "bright yellow" emergency call boxes. "I didn't see any signs. Emergency call boxes? I didn't see any emergency call boxes." Who has time to "look around" when they're trapped in the post-apocalyptic hellscape of the High Line? $4 cucumber- lime popsicles, THE HORROR.
The lawsuit, which claims that the city "negligently, carelessly, recklessly and unreasonably locked the doors to the park," hasn't been filed yet, but Rasnick's attorney says they're in the "preliminary stages," and have talked about settling with city attorneys. "Why didn't they check before they locked the gate? It's not like we were hiding," Rasnick said, "This all could have been prevented." Yeah! They need some cameras up there or something!
