POLAND: Poland's state railway PKP is claiming compensation from a man who caused delays to its services by being run over by a train - but said it may forgive the debt after learning the man's house had burned down.
"We are acting in accordance with article 415 of the Civil Code, seeking damages from a person who caused delays in rail traffic," PKP spokesman Mr Krzysztof Lancucki said yesterday.
He said Mr Pawel Banaszek (19), who was paralysed in the incident in August 2003, caused 2,058 zlotys (€470) worth of losses due to delays.
Half the amount was written off and Mr Banaszek was paying the rest in monthly instalments from his disability pension. Mr Lancucki said he had made three payments so far.
Earlier, Poland's daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported that Mr Banaszek's house had recently burned down, and Mr Lancucki told reporters that PKP would most likely write off the remaining debt if Mr Banaszek made a formal request.
Accounts of how Mr Banaszek ended up lying on the tracks vary.
The newspaper said he was beaten up in a bar in his home village of Stare Bosewo, central Poland, and left for dead on the rails, though a local prosecutor said there was no conclusive evidence a fight had taken place.
The paper quoted Mr Banaszek's father as saying his son's attackers had dragged him onto the tracks to try to fake a suicide.
But regional prosecutor Mr Robert Strzeminski said: "We didn't have any evidence of a beating ... so we had to treat it as a simple train accident."
Mr Lancucki said it was not the railway's responsibility to determine how Mr Banaszek got onto the rails. "We are the guardians of public property, not a charitable institution, and we have an obligation to seek compensation in the name of the taxpayers," he told the paper.