• 30
  • March
    2011

A young doctor who was hit by a car when she was out jogging suffered such severe brain injuries that she will never be able to practice medicine again. She sued the city where the accident took place, claiming that the city planners knew that the intersection was dangerous and did nothing to prevent a pedestrian car accident.

The jury in the case determined that the doctor was due $16 million in damages. Her medical bills and future lost income were estimated at $12 million.

The doctor was only twenty-five at the time of the accident. She was in her second week in residency at the UC Davis Medical Center when she was hit by a car as she jogged across the street in the dangerous crosswalk.

Just seven months later, a $2 million public works project changed the busy two-lane, one-way street into a single lane in both directions and reduced the distance pedestrians are required to travel to cross the street. A traffic signal was installed to alert drivers to the crosswalk.

The plaintiff argued at trial that the city traffic planners had known the crosswalk was unsafe at least since 2001. She further argued that the city could have closed the crosswalk and had pedestrians cross at a safer location just two hundred feet away.

A letter from the former mayor was introduced in evidence that acknowledged the danger to pedestrians of the crosswalk.

Miami car accident attorneys noted that the driver of the car was found to be 39 percent responsible for the accident, but there was no way to recover damages from him.

Source: news10.net "Sacramento loses $16 million crosswalk verdict" 3/29/2011