Defense Verdict

We received a defense verdict after a three week trial in Supreme Court, Queens County in a wrongful death action of an alleged hit and run with a tractor-trailer and an 81 year old mother. Plaintiff, a pedestrian, was walking to the cemetery to visit her deceased husband and was allegedly struck by defendant’s tractor-trailer according to police reports and at least one eyewitness account. Defendant’s tractor-trailer driver denied contact with the pedestrian and defendants utilized an accident reconstruction expert and a biomechanical expert to establish that the injuries sustained by the decedent were inconsistent with a tractor-trailer knockdown and/or run over, as testified to by the non-party witness. Plaintiff’s counsel produced their own biomechanical engineer expert to refute defendants’ expert, as well as the non-party witness. Defendants utilized not only their experts and driver, but also utilized the EMT to dispute issues involving the injuries and the time of death and a second non-party witness who was in the area and did not see the tractor-trailer strike the pedestrian.