The CTA will pay $6 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit after a city bus struck a woman last year. Chicago resident Sherry Fisher, was struck by a CTA bus and pinned underneath it while she walked in a North Lawndale crosswalk last March, the lawsuit alleged. The crash caused her “severe injuries,” which she died from nearly three months later, according to the lawsuit.
Fisher filed suit against the CTA and the driver of the bus, Felicia Gage, before she died last May. The complaint, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, alleged Gage drove “carelessly and negligently.” She is no longer working for the CTA, according to the agency.
Court records indicate the settlement will be paid out following approval from the court’s probate division. CTA spokesperson Manny Gonzales said in a statement that the agency could not comment on pending litigation.
In court filings, the defendants denied allegations of negligence.
An attorney for Gage, who is also listed as the attorney for the CTA, did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
Fisher “endured extreme pain and suffering undergoing many surgical procedures, experienced mental suffering and emotional distress, and suffered a loss of her normal routine of life and eventually succumbed to her injuries,” the lawsuit, which was amended to include wrongful death counts after Fisher died, alleged. Fisher was 62 when she died, according to her attorney, Richard Sklare.
The CTA’s board of directors approved the settlement payout in June. It was approved by Judge Kathy Flanagan last month.
Sklare said the settlement will allow Fisher’s daughter to provide for her own child “in a manner that I would imagine her mom would want for them.”
