Motorist claiming spinal injuries from bus collision wins $1.8M

A motorist who alleged he aggravated existing injuries and sustained new injuries to his back in a collision with a bus settled his case for $1.8 million on Jan. 8, 2020.

In Brown v. Cohen, plaintiff Edmund Brown claimed he reinjured his cervical and lumbar spine and sustained new injuries to his thoracic spine in the Jan. 23, 2014, crash.

Brown, 59 at the time, was driving east on East Main Street in Freehold, N.J., when a school bus owned by bus company Seman-Tov Inc. of Elberon and driven by company employee Shay Cohen failed to stop for a stop sign at an intersecting road, after which Brown struck the bus broadside, said Brown’s lawyer, Raymond Gill Jr.

Seman-Tov was insured by Amtrust Insurance Co., Gill said.

Brown — who, according to Gill, underwent a three-level cervical fusion and lumbar discectomies following a rear-end collision in 2011 — claimed the 2014 accident caused him to need another fusion procedure at the cervical level, which resulted in an infection and further surgeries. The suit also claimed the 2014 accident aggravated his lower back injuries, leading to the implantation of spinal column stimulators, which also led to infections. Brown also developed a condition causing softening of the spinal cord, and a cyst on the spinal cord at the thoracic level, where he’d had no prior injuries, Gill said.

The defense contended that the thoracic spine issues weren’t related to the accident, but Brown contended that the type of cyst he developed can come about as a result of trauma to the spine, Gill noted.

The parties, scheduled for trial in March, settled on Jan. 8 during a second mediation session with John Keefe Sr., a retired Appellate Division judge.

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