$20.452 Million Settlement for Pedestrian Who Lost Leg in AC Transit Bus Crash

On the night of March 14, 2012, an 18-year-old student named Jung Hye Lee was trying to board an AC Transit bus at the intersection of Moraga Avenue and LaSalle Avenue in Montclair, California. It was raining. She crossed the street and, according to the initial police report, ran against the red light. The bus driver passed through on green and struck her. A two-month police investigation assigned her 100 percent of the fault.

Lee lost her left leg. She suffered sensate paralysis in her right leg and multiple pelvic fractures. She had been working at a yogurt shop, taking college courses, and volunteering at a hospice. Her family retained GJEL Accident Attorneys, and partner Luke Ellis took the case.

Ellis was skeptical of the police finding from the start. AC Transit buses are equipped with onboard cameras, and investigators pulled footage from multiple angles, five or six views in total. The team also conducted a full 3-D engineering survey of the intersection and assembled more than a dozen expert witnesses. What that reconstruction showed was that Lee had been visible to the driver for roughly eight seconds before impact, enough time for a professional driver to perceive her and bring the bus to a complete stop.

The defense argued that the driver checked for passengers, saw no one, and could not have stopped in time once Lee appeared. Ellis countered that the driver knew this particular stop, knew pedestrians crossed there regularly, and bore a higher duty of care as a professional transit operator. The case was set for trial in Alameda County Superior Court under docket RG12647237.

One day before trial was scheduled to begin, following a two-day mediation, AC Transit agreed to settle for $20,452,000. At the time of settlement in November 2013, that figure was the largest amount ever paid by any bus company, public or private, to a single individual in California history.