MONTGOMERY — Officials have agreed to pay nearly $3.6 million to a senior citizen who broke his neck after falling from a municipal bus, the man's attorney said today.
The fall occurred in November 2006 when Ruixiang Shen, 71, was helping move a wheelchair for a 93-year-old woman, said attorney Michael Paglione of Lawrenceville.
According to Paglione, the driver of the bus believed its handicap lift was broken, and others routinely helped the woman.
Shen, a retired professor from China who lived in Montgomery at the time, fell backward and broke his neck in two places, Paglione said. Shen was hospitalized for nearly three months, but sought care in Shanghai when treatment in the United States became too costly, Paglione said.
The lawsuit was filed in Superior Court in Somerville in 2008.
"Operating senior buses with untrained drivers and without working handicapped equipment flies in the face of public safety," Paglione said.
He said Shen is a quadriplegic and needs 24-hour care.