$380,000 Settlement – Pedestrian Struck in Brooklyn Crosswalk
A marked crosswalk, a walk signal, and a driver who decided the turn he wanted to make was more important than the pedestrian in his path. That was the situation our client found themselves in on a Brooklyn street in 2023. Linden Law recovered $380,000 for the broken ankle, the surgery, and the five months of wages that driver’s illegal turn cost them.
The Case
Our client was crossing a Brooklyn street in a marked crosswalk, with the pedestrian signal in their favor, when a vehicle making an illegal turn struck them. The driver had no right to make the turn under the traffic control at that intersection – it was an illegal maneuver, documented by witnesses and by doorbell camera footage from a business on the corner. The impact knocked our client down and caused a serious ankle fracture that required surgery. They were a restaurant worker – a physical job that demands being on your feet for long shifts – and the injury put them out of work for five months.
The Injury
Ankle fractures that require surgery are not the kind of injury you walk off in a few weeks. Our client underwent an open reduction and internal fixation procedure, in which plates and screws are used to hold the fractured bones in proper alignment while they heal. The hardware stays in permanently unless it causes problems – a fact that itself is a constant reminder of the accident. Post-surgical recovery involved non-weight-bearing restrictions, a period in a boot, and several months of physical therapy before the ankle could reliably support the kind of sustained standing and movement that restaurant work demands.
Five months out of work in a physical, hourly-wage job is a significant economic loss. Restaurant workers do not have the luxury of working remotely while an ankle heals. You are either on the floor or you are not working. Our client was not working, and the financial pressure that created was compounded by the medical bills accumulating during the same period.
How We Established Liability
Pedestrian cases can be surprisingly contested, even when the facts seem obvious. Drivers and their insurers are practiced at suggesting the pedestrian was somehow at fault – not paying attention, crossing against the light, stepping off the curb unexpectedly. We locked down the evidence before any of those narratives could take hold.
Two witnesses had been present at the intersection and had seen the driver make the illegal turn and strike our client in the crosswalk. We tracked them down quickly, took their statements, and preserved their contact information for depositions. Their accounts were consistent with each other and with our client’s recollection.
More importantly, a nearby business had a doorbell camera that had captured the collision. We moved immediately to preserve that footage, contacting the business owner within days of being retained. The footage showed exactly what our client described: the walk signal active, our client in the crosswalk, the vehicle turning from a lane and angle that made the turn illegal, and the impact. It was the kind of evidence that makes the liability argument short.
Challenges We Overcame
The driver’s insurer did not dispute liability for long – the footage and witnesses made that untenable. Instead, they shifted their energy to minimizing the damages. Their position was that our client had recovered “well” from the ankle surgery, that the physical therapy notes showed “excellent progress,” and that the return to work after five months was evidence that the injury had not been as debilitating as claimed.
This is a common and irritating litigation tactic: using the fact that someone recovered – because they worked hard at recovery, because they were resilient – as evidence that the injury wasn’t serious. We rejected that framing forcefully. The five months out of work were documented. The surgery was real. The hardware in our client’s ankle is still there. “Excellent progress” in physical therapy means the treatment worked, not that the injury was minor.
We also made sure the lost wage component was fully built out. We obtained pay stubs from before the accident and documentation from the employer confirming the dates our client was unable to work. Combined with the medical bills and the non-economic damages our client had endured, the case had a clear and defensible value well above what the insurer was initially prepared to offer.
The Outcome
The case settled for $380,000. Our client – who had been crossing a street legally, in a marked crosswalk, with the signal in their favor – received compensation for the surgery, the five months of missed wages, and the pain and recovery they had endured. The driver who made an illegal turn and then, presumably, hoped it would all go away, did not get that luxury.
For more on pedestrian accident claims in Brooklyn, visit our pedestrian accident practice area page or our Brooklyn personal injury page.
Injured in a similar accident? Call (212) 804-8440 for a free consultation. No fee unless we win.