Crash Victims
When you imagine becoming a millionaire, you picture sitting on the stage of some television show and providing the winning answer; or winning the lottery; or Ed McMahon or maybe the latest HGTV dream home host knocking at the door. You never picture a phone call that your loved one has died in a plane crash. What is the point of a million dollar lawsuit when you win it by losing the reason you’d ever want money in the first place?
But this is what is going to happen to the Buffalo Crash Victims. Talk about a pyrrhic victory.
Are you familiar with the origin of the word pyrrhic? You probably learned this in high school English, or perhaps in history class. It all goes back to King Pyrrhus who was at war with the Romans. His problem was that even though the King won his battles, there was an inexhaustible supply of Roman soldiers. The Romans won the war–because the Romans always had more soldiers to replenish their ranks. It all comes down to a quote from Plutarch, Lives: “Another such victory over the Romans and we are undone.” Pyrrhic came to define any victory that costs more than it is worth.
So that is the position survivors are in. Even if their lawyers win their cases for them, the survivors have still lost. Even when their lawyers file and win their settlements, the battle is still lost, because the lost are still lost, and money is no replacement.
There will be financial problems now, because breadwinners are gone. Mortgages must still be paid; college educations must still be financed. Medical bills and household expenses do not stop simply because the one who paid them is gone. Or worse, the one who was going to college is gone in the flower of their potential life.
So that will be the next move of the families of the victims of the crash: hiring attorneys to represent them. Really, the only question here is which attorneys will the survivors choose?