Massachusetts Pedestrian Dragged By Hit-and-Run Driver Settles For $900,000
A 51-year-old Massachusetts woman was struck by a car while crossing the street, dragged 15 to 20 feet, and left bleeding in the roadway as the driver fled. City traffic cameras recorded the strike and neighborhood home-surveillance cameras tracked the vehicle afterward, but the driver was never publicly identified in the reported case. She suffered a fractured spine and pelvis, a skull fracture, a broken elbow, and temporary vocal cord paralysis that required a feeding tube. The claim resolved for $900,000 in April 2021, with Christopher DiBella of DiBella Law Office representing her.
What happened
The woman, 51 at the time, was on foot crossing a street when a car struck her, dragged her 15 to 20 feet across the pavement, and kept going. City traffic cameras caught the moment of impact, and several home surveillance cameras in the surrounding neighborhood separately picked up the same vehicle driving through the area afterward. When paramedics arrived, she was lying in the street with her groceries scattered around her, and the driver was gone.
The crash left her with a fracture of her lumbosacral spine and pelvis, a fracture of the vault of her skull, a maxillary fracture, and a broken elbow. She also suffered a traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage with loss of consciousness. She was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Boston, where she underwent two separate surgeries to address her injuries.
Recovery was long and physically difficult. After the surgery on her pelvis, she had to wear an external fixator for two months, a device that stabilizes broken pelvic bones from outside the body, and the published report describes it as painful and limiting to her ability to move around. The trauma also caused temporary vocal cord paralysis, which interfered with her ability to speak and swallow and required doctors to place a feeding tube while the paralysis resolved.
She was not able to go straight home from the hospital. She was transferred between two different rehabilitation facilities and did not return home until three months after the crash. She was the sole financial supporter of her two children, both college students still living at home, and they had to take on jobs of their own to help cover household bills while her income was disrupted.
The matter was reported by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly under its Verdicts and Settlements coverage, with the case name and court number withheld and no jury or judge listed, indicating the claim was resolved by settlement rather than tried. Christopher DiBella of DiBella Law Office in Boston represented her as plaintiff's counsel, and the case settled for $900,000 in April 2021.
The published record does not identify the driver by name, does not say whether the surveillance footage led to an arrest or criminal charges for leaving the scene, and does not disclose which insurer paid the settlement. Those facts were not part of what either the reporter or the firm made public.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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