$1.2 Million Recovery for Fatal Pedestrian Accident on Roosevelt Boulevard

Attorneys John M. Dodig and Jason A. Daria secured a $1.2 million settlement for the parents of a college student who died after being struck by a motor vehicle while crossing Roosevelt Boulevard in a designated crosswalk.

On May 27, 2016, 20-year-old Christelle Charles was crossing Roosevelt Boulevard in an easterly direction using a crosswalk at the Bingham Street intersection when she was struck by a driver who crossed over into the outer drive (or local lanes) of the Boulevard using a crossover located only 60 feet before the intersection at Bingham Street. While proceeding through the crossover, the driver was looking behind and to his right for traffic in the outer drive in order to merge over. As a result, he did not see Charles crossing the Boulevard ahead of him in time, and his vehicle struck her.

Charles suffered severe head injuries and died the next day.

Accident reconstruction engineers were retained to establish liability against entities responsible for the roadway design where the crosswalk at Bingham Street was dangerously close to the express lane to local lanes crossover.

The case was hotly contested, with the defense relying strongly on the fact that Charles was crossing on a red light.

In achieving the substantial recovery, Dodig and Daria overcame the barrier of the striking driver having minimal insurance. Additionally, they negotiated the settlement at a time when the courts were closed to jury trials due to COVID and there was no pending trial date to incentivize the defendants to settle.