Corona Man Wins The Largest Auto Collision Verdict Of $51.8M

Introduction

A Corona man was awarded $51.8 million by Queens Supreme Court jury in a verdict who was injured in a car crash in 2017. The verdict was one of the largest verdicts recorded in New York City auto collision lawsuit.

The 44-year-old plaintiff was rear-ended on the Long Island Expressway and experienced numbness in his hand caused by a herniated disk in his neck with his meniscus shredded in the collision, and the injuries required multiple surgeries.

The plaintiff’s insurance company offered a sum of $225,000, which was woefully inadequate to cover the extent of plaintiff’s injuries. Justice Joseph Esposito presided at the trial. The award included $5 million for past damages, $36 million for future damages, and $5 million for future medical expenses, a total of $46.1 million. The overall total includes 9 percent judicial interest from the summary judgment in February 2018.

In a similar train-truck collision at a Lakeland, Fla. railroad crossing on November 9, a Tampa jury awarded $2,576,069 to a Jacksonville CSX railroad conductor who got severely bruised when his freight train collided with a tractor-trailer. Circuit Judge Cheryl Thomas gave the final verdict on November 14.

The conductor was on a CSX freight train scheduled for Jacksonville when a tractor-trailer carrying new automobiles and driven by a Lakeland truck driver entered the rail crossing. As the truck driver approached the crossing, the oncoming train of five locomotives and 34 rail cars sounded its whistle with headlights on. As the engineer activated the emergency brakes, the conductor bent down on the cab floor to save his head from flying objects, and the impact jerked and twisted his body, striking his head. Initially, he suffered from back strain and head contusion, but later, he suffered chronic back pain. Eventually, unable to bear the pain, he quit his job after three weeks of joining again.

The lawsuit was filed against the truck driver and his employer on March 8, 2016, alleging negligent conduct and liability for the accident. In 2017, the conductor was implanted with a spinal cord stimulator device to treat his back pain, but the device was removed due to a serious sepsis infection.

Comments