$875,000 Settlement – Commercial Truck Accident in Queens
| Settlement Amount | $875,000 |
| Injury Type | Fractured pelvis, bilateral knee injuries, permanent nerve damage |
| Location | Jamaica Avenue, Queens |
| Year | 2023 |
| Practice Area | Truck Accidents / Motor Vehicle Accidents |
What Happened
Our client was driving through a controlled intersection on Jamaica Avenue in Queens when a commercial delivery truck blew through a red light and slammed directly into the driver’s side of her vehicle. The impact was sudden and catastrophic – a T-bone collision at intersection speed, with a commercial truck’s mass behind it.
She was conscious at the scene but in severe pain. Bystanders called 911 immediately. She was transported by ambulance to a trauma center, where the full extent of her injuries came into focus over the following hours. What followed was not a recovery in the ordinary sense – it was a prolonged, painful, and uncertain process involving multiple surgeries, months of rehabilitation, and a permanent impairment she carries to this day.
The truck driver had been on the road for fourteen hours. This was not an accident in any meaningful sense of the word. It was the foreseeable consequence of a trucking company that ignored federal safety regulations and put a fatigued driver behind the wheel of a commercial vehicle on a busy Queens street.
The Injuries
The collision caused a pelvic fracture requiring surgical stabilization, bilateral knee injuries requiring arthroscopic surgery on both knees – performed in two separate procedures – and permanent nerve damage in the left leg that has affected our client’s sensation, strength, and mobility on a lasting basis.
The bilateral knee damage was particularly limiting. Our client could not bear weight normally during her recovery, requiring assistive devices for an extended period. Even after both knee surgeries, she was left with reduced functional capacity and chronic discomfort with sustained activity. The nerve damage in her left leg is, by all treating physician accounts, permanent.
How Liability Was Established
Liability in this case came from multiple overlapping directions – and Jason pursued every one of them.
The most visible proof came from traffic camera footage. Jason obtained video from a New York City DOT intersection camera positioned at the collision point. The footage was unambiguous: the delivery truck entered the intersection on a red light, traveling at speed, with no braking visible before impact. Our client’s vehicle had the green.
But Jason did not stop there. FMCSA driver logs – the federal electronic records commercial truck drivers are required to maintain – showed that the driver had been on the road for fourteen consecutive hours at the time of the crash, in direct violation of federal hours-of-service regulations that cap driving time to prevent fatigue-related accidents. The driver was, under federal law, not legally permitted to be operating that vehicle.
The trucking company had also failed to conduct an adequate pre-employment background check. Had they done so, they would have discovered that the driver’s commercial license had been previously suspended. Hiring this driver was a failure of basic due diligence – and it made the company independently liable for negligent hiring.
Challenges in the Case
The trucking company’s insurer did not concede liability easily. Their initial defense rested on the claim that our client had entered the intersection after the light had already changed – in other words, that she, not the truck driver, had run the red. It was a factually implausible argument, but without quick action it might have had traction.
The DOT camera footage eliminated that argument. But Jason also obtained the truck’s Electronic Logging Device (ELD) data – the onboard computer record of the driver’s movements and hours – which contradicted the driver’s own account of his route and rest stops in key respects. The ELD data, combined with the FMCSA log violations, painted a picture of a driver whose fatigue was not just a possibility but a documented, provable fact.
With the footage, the ELD data, the FMCSA violations, and the negligent hiring claim all in hand, Jason had built a case that exposed not just the driver’s negligence but systemic failures by the trucking company.
The Outcome
The case settled for $875,000. That result acknowledged our client’s serious and permanent injuries, her past medical expenses, her lost income during recovery, and the lasting impact on her physical capacity and quality of life. It also reflected the strength of the multi-theory liability case Jason constructed – a case that made clear the trucking company was not walking away from this.
For our client, it meant financial breathing room and the ability to move forward after an ordeal that had disrupted every aspect of her life.
Injured by a commercial truck, delivery vehicle, or tractor-trailer in New York City? Trucking cases move fast – driver logs are overwritten, vehicles are repaired, and evidence has a short shelf life. The earlier you call, the more we can preserve.
Contact Linden Law for a Free Consultation → | (212) 804-8440
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Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Every case is unique. The facts, injuries, and legal theories in your case will determine its value. This summary has been anonymized to protect client privacy.