In Seattle, wheelchair user wins $1.8 million after ride in Metro Access van breaks her legs

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

A wheelchair-bound woman seriously injured while riding aboard Metro Access vans will receive $1.8 million from a pair of contractors hired by the King County paratransit program.

In separate incidents, the woman, now 60, broke a femur and then both lower legs during incidents in July 2006 and September 2008, respectively, in which her attorneys contended the operators of the Access vans were negligent.

The Access system is designed to provide transportation for residents who can't use the public bus system because of physical disabilities. Shared vans are available to provide curb-to-curb transportation for county residents in need of such assistance.

Though she used a wheelchair to get around due to a medical condition, the woman had been living independently before the 2006 incident, attorney Corrie Yackulic said, announcing the settlements last week.

In July 2006, the woman was thrown from her chair after the van made a sudden stop. Her attorneys claimed the van's driver, an employee of MV Transportation, Inc., failed to adequately strap her into her wheelchair.

Her femur broken, the woman was hospitalized for seven days before being released to a Renton nursing home, according to the lawsuit. That injury resulted in a $700,000 settlement inked in September 2009.

Just more than two years after that severe leg break, the woman suffered breaks to both legs during another incident aboard another Access van.

Having arrived for an appointment at a dialysis center, the woman fell from a wheelchair lift when the van's driver began to lower the platform before the chair was all the way on it, according to the lawsuit. The woman was pitched from her chair and suffered injuries to both her lower legs.

"Even after the first accident, she would play bingo or participate in recreational activities with other care-facility residents," Yakulic said. "Now, because of the pain of getting from her bed into a wheel chair, she spends most of her time in bed.

"She appreciates all that her caregivers do for her, but it is a very different life than she anticipated as a result of the injuries incurred on the buses."

An attorney for the second driver's employer, Solid Ground Washington, did not return a request for comment. According to the woman's attorneys, Solid Ground has agreed to pay her $1.1 million as part of a settlement agreement.

Kathleen Kindred, another attorney for the woman, said the settlement money will allow her client -- who was 56 when the first incident occurred -- to live in her own home instead of spending her remaining years in a nursing facility.

"Her hope was to always get back to living in a family home," Kindred said. "Those accidents really cost her her independence."

The money will be used to pay for the woman's care, Kindred added.