$4.5 Million Settlement After a Veolia Garbage Truck Ran Down a Green Bay Pedestrian in a Crosswalk

In downtown Green Bay, a woman stepped into the Monroe Street crosswalk with the walk signal showing in her favor. A Veolia Solid Waste Midwest garbage truck ran her down in the intersection. By the account her lawyers later presented, the driver was rushing through his collection route and was not watching the crosswalk ahead of him.

The injuries were catastrophic. Her left leg was almost completely torn off and could not be saved, so surgeons amputated it above the knee. She also suffered a fractured right ankle, a broken left wrist, multiple broken ribs, a collapsed lung, bruising to both lungs, scalp lacerations with a hematoma, and fractures of the T12 and L1 vertebrae in her lower spine.

Robert L. Habush and Colleen B. Beaman from Habush Habush & Rottier's Milwaukee office, together with Ralph J. Tease Jr. and Byron B. Conway from the firm's Green Bay office, filed suit in Brown County Circuit Court. The case was captioned Stodola v. Veolia Solid Waste Midwest, No. 09-CV-1494. Veolia Solid Waste Midwest was the commercial hauler that owned the truck and employed the driver.

Veolia did not concede fault. Its defense argued that the woman had entered the crosswalk while the 'Don't Walk' signal was flashing, and that she should have seen the truck before it reached her. That framing aimed to shift part of the blame onto the pedestrian under Wisconsin's comparative-negligence rules, which can cut or bar a recovery depending on how a jury divides fault.

The plaintiff's case centered on the driver's conduct: a garbage truck operator moving too fast and looking away as he drove a heavy vehicle through a signal-controlled downtown intersection where a pedestrian had the right of way. Shortly before trial, the parties stipulated to liability, which took the question of fault off the table and left only the amount of damages to be resolved.

The case then settled for $4.5 million, with the disposition entered on October 21, 2010. There was no trial verdict and no appeal. The settlement resolved all of the woman's claims against Veolia and its driver.