NEW YORK — A Florida woman who says she was hit and dragged by a bus in New York City and left partially paralyzed has been awarded $72.5 million in her lawsuit against the city’s transit agency.
A city jury ruled in favor of Aurora Beauchamp, now 68, who was struck by a Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in March 2017. She was crossing a street at a crosswalk when she was hit by a bus making a right turn and dragged under it about 20 feet.
Beauchamp, who grew up near the crash site and now lives in Bradenton, Florida, suffered serious pelvic injuries and left her left leg paralyzed. She told the New York Post on Saturday that she was on her way to her mother’s apartment to discuss her uterine cancer diagnosis when she was struck.
“I’ve crossed that street a hundred million times in my life,” she said. “I felt good. The next thing I know I’m under the bus fighting for my life.
A six-person jury deliberated for less than three hours before reaching a verdict on February 22. Beauchamp’s attorneys said the verdict appears to be one of the highest following an MTA bus crash.
The MTA plans to appeal, spokesman Tim Minton told WPIX-TV, which first reported the ruling.
“This is yet another indication of the impact of excessive awards in personal injury lawsuits on the funding that might otherwise be available to provide transit services,” he said.
The driver of the bus that struck Beauchamp pleaded guilty to failing to yield to a pedestrian, the Post reported.