Earlier this month the appellate court covering Brooklyn reduced a Brooklyn jury verdict of $9.5M in favor of a then 20 year old lady who was struck by a bus in Brooklyn while crossing Benson Avenue by 20th Avenue. The pedestrian crossed Benson Avenue in the cross walk with the light in her favor. The bus made a right turn into the young lady who was removed from the scene bleeding from her head and taken to a nearby hospital. Though she complained of pain in her head, neck and back, she was discharged after they stitched her head and a lumbar x-ray was reported as normal.

Following the accident, the young lady underwent 10 months of physical therapy and was diagnosed by two of her physicians with significant head trauma resulting in headaches and cervical/lumbar sprains with radiculopathy. More than two years after the accident, the plaintiff was diagnosed with spinal disc herniations and underwent a cervical laminectomy and fusion and a lumbar fusion which will likely require future spinal surgeries. There was testimony from six medical experts for the plaintiff who also was claimed to have been diagnosed with significant cognitive injuries with a NeuroQuant test which assesses cortical and structural damage. It was claimed that the plaintiff will require maintenance cognitive therapy for life.

The defense presented two medical experts both of whom swore their was no objective evidence of an injury to the spine, no herniation's and presumably no need for surgery. The jury disagreed and awarded the plaintiff: $500,000 for past pain and suffering; $5,000,000 for future pain and suffering; and, $4,000,000 for future medical expenses over the next 55 years totaling $9,500,000. The appellate court reduced the award for future pain and suffering to $3,000,000 and the future medical expenses to $3,000,000. Myndar v City of New York and Varsity Bus Co., 2018 N.Y. Slip Op. 50452(U)