New York Woman Secures Neck Injury Compensation

Staten Island, NYA Graniteville, New York woman who was injured in an Express bus accident recently obtained neck injury compensation from the New York City Transit Authority in what was her second settlement with the agency in five years.

According to the Staten Island Advance, Lydia Batson was a passenger on a Manhattan-bound bus on July 27, 2006, when it crashed into another vehicle at the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge toll plaza.

Batson, who is now 61 years old, reportedly suffered neck injuries and needed to undergo surgery for the injuries one year after the accident, her lawyer claimed. The injuries reportedly worsened a pre-existing condition that Batson had suffered in an accident three years earlier, the lawsuit claimed.

In that incident, which occurred in January 2003, Batson was reportedly a passenger on a different bus when it crashed, causing her to sustain injuries to three neck discs in the process, according to the news source.

Batson's attorney said his client underwent treatment without having surgery and ultimately settled that personal injury case for $10,000, with the Transit Authority paying $4,200 of that total.

While Batson claimed that the injuries were exacerbated in the second accident, the Transit Authority disagreed with those allegations, claiming instead that the prior neck injuries had not properly healed and, as a result, were not made worse by the 2006 crash.

However, Batson's attorney claimed that a doctor who examined the woman approximately 20 months after the 2003 accident determined that there was nothing physically ailing his client at that time, according to the news source.

Neck injuries occur on a regular basis across the country, and a Louisiana hospital visitor who claims to have tripped while walking out of an elevator has filed a lawsuit for more than $600,000 for the permanent ailments she sustained.

According to the Louisiana Record, Alinda Kolb filed the lawsuit in federal court in New Orleans claiming that Louisiana Medical Center was negligent in its maintenance of the elevator, specifically the fact that there was allegedly a difference in elevation from the floor of the elevator to the lobby floor.

Kolb is seeking more than $600,000 in damages for pain and suffering, lost income, medical expenses and court costs, according to the news source.