Tri-Met Settles Case — Pedestrian Run Over in Crosswalk

We settled our case with Tri-Met from a 1/25/08 incident.  In the incident, our client, Pat, was run over by a Tri-Met bus, in a crosswalk, with the light, while the Tri-Met bus was making a left turn.  The Tri-Met driver, still employed by Tri-Met last we were told, saw Pat on the sidewalk with her dog waiting for the light to cross in the crosswalk.  The Tri-Met driver assumed Pat had already gone by when in fact the Tri-Met bus hit Pat’s dog and then trapped and ran her over.  Her left leg had to be amputated below the knee.  Due to the severity of the injury, wearing a prosthetic has been very difficult.

Tri-Met admitted fault but did not offer Pat close to fair value to settle the case until the weekend before trial.  Pat had to move out of her condo in NE Portland and move to a retirement community.  Fortunately, her dog survived but she is no longer able to walk him due to her injuries and had to have a family member take her dog.

The trial was to begin May 3, 2010 in Multnomah County Courthouse in Portland, Oregon.

The Oregonian has been reporting on the Tri-Met incidents where pedestrians have been run over in the crosswalk while drivers were making left turns.

Tri-Met settled the case for what we have been told was the highest personal injury settlement Tri-Met has paid.  Jane Paulson in our office represented Pat.  The incident happened while Oregon’s tort claim cap for public entities was $200,000 ($100,000 for economic damages and $100,000 for non-economic damages).  We filed the case and planned to challenge the cap which is what resulted in the higher settlement.

This was posted on Tuesday, May 4th, 2010 and is filed in the General, Public Safety categories.