Oakland County Jury Awards Brian Iminski $32.4 Million After a First Student Bus Ran a Red Light

On the morning of March 8, 2024, Brian Iminski was driving his work pickup truck to his job at an HVAC company in Oakland County, Michigan. A First Student school bus, driven by Kentera Jones, ran a red light. First Student is one of the largest student transportation companies in the country, and the bus weighed roughly 35,000 pounds. It T-boned Iminski's truck and shoved it into a barricade.

The size difference left Iminski badly hurt. He suffered a closed head injury along with acute back and neck injuries. His recovery became a long run of increasingly invasive spinal treatments that ended in a fusion surgery. He also lived with cognitive effects he and his doctors described as brain fog. The physical limits eventually cost him his HVAC job.

Before trial, the court ruled that Jones had run the red light and that First Student was liable for the crash. That left a single question for the jury: how much Iminski's injuries were worth. Jurors never heard a fight over fault. The damages trial opened on May 6, 2026, in Oakland County Circuit Court before Judge Jacob Cunningham, and Courtroom View Network recorded the proceedings.

First Student did not contest fault at trial, but it fought hard on the numbers. Defense attorney Kevin Plagens argued that Iminski's problems traced back to an earlier car accident rather than the bus crash, and told jurors any award should land between $350,000 and $500,000. Jonathan Marko of Marko Law answered with Iminski's own treating physicians, doctors who had cared for him before the collision. Each one testified that the crash, not a pre-existing condition, caused his injuries.

About two weeks after testimony began, the jury returned its verdict: $32,375,683. The figure towered over the defense's pretrial settlement offer of $750,000, made the day before trial, and over Marko's own $10 million demand. Marko told Courtroom View Network afterward that he credited the result to the treating physicians who knew Iminski before the wreck.

The award stood as returned in the coverage of the verdict. Under Michigan law, the defense is also responsible for Iminski's attorney fees and costs.