$900,000 Settlement for Teenager Struck and Killed While Crossing Roosevelt Boulevard

Attorneys Roberta D. Pichini and Jason A. Daria represented a second mid-block crosswalk case—this time resulting in a death—obtaining a settlement of $900,000 for the mother of a 13-year-old girl killed on Roosevelt Boulevard. The teenage old girl was crossing Roosevelt Boulevard in the middle of a block late on Easter night after attending a party at a roller rink on the Boulevard. While crossing to try to catch a bus on the other side of the multi-lane Boulevard, the girl was struck by a car driven by a young man who fled the scene. Again, the City and Commonwealth and engineering companies involved blamed the girl for running across the Boulevard in the dark and blamed the striking driver for being negligent.

Principles of municipal immunity severely limited the possible recovery from the City and Commonwealth defendants. In addition, defendants produced expert discovery, countered by plaintiffs, that the death had been instantaneous and that no damages for conscious pain and suffering were appropriate. However, Pichini and Daria’s experts detailed the nature and extent of injuries found at autopsy and explained that several seconds of conscious pain and suffering likely occurred before death.