US jury awards $148 million to dancer paralysed in bus collapse
Chicago, Aug 25 (IANS) Tierney Darden, partially paralysed after a bus shelter of the Chicago O’Hare International Airport collapsed on her two years ago, was awarded $148 million by a Cook County jury on Wednesday.
Darden was a 24-year-old dance student with a bright future two years ago before she was seriously injured by the collapsed shelter during a storm on August 2, 2015, Xinhua news agency reported.
She took the City of Chicago to court and was awarded thus sum in a verdict after a 7-day trial.
“I have finally been given hope,” Darden was quoted as saying.
The verdict is reportedly the largest against the city in a personal injury case, which her lawyer Patrick Salvi described as “farely reasonable,” given the fact that her spinal cord was severed, she was left paralysed from the waist down with constant pain.
Investigators later found that the shelter collapsed because of missing bolts and corroded parts, and her lawyers accused the City of Chicago of poor maintenance.