A suburban Chicago man whose legs were amputated in 2017 after a car lurched forward into a parking space, pinning him against the front of a 7-Eleven store, reached a $91 million settlement on Monday with the convenience store chain.
A Cook County judge approved the settlement on the day the man’s lawsuit had been set for a jury trial, said James Power, one of the attorneys representing the 57-year-old plaintiff, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
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The man was waiting in front of a 7-Eleven store in Bensenville for his carpool ride to a food processing plant on Sept. 20, 2017, when a motorist pulling into a parking space in front of the store stepped on his car’s accelerator instead of the brake, Power said.
An Illinois man was awarded $91 million in a settlement with 7-Eleven after losing both legs when a car accident pinned him to the front of their Bensenville store. (ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)
The car lurched over a curb, across a sidewalk and pinned the man against the storefront, causing injuries that would require the amputation of both his legs above the knees, Power said. The man was hospitalized for a month after the crash and now walks using prosthetic legs, he said.
“He has been through a lot of pain,” Power said.
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The 2017 crash was one of thousands of similar incidents identified in discovery for the case — collisions that frequently resulted in crippling injuries, he said. The crashes could have been prevented, Power said, if 7-Elevens had installed bollards — thick posts anchored in the ground — between storefronts and parking spaces.
A spokesperson for 7-Eleven, which operates about 8,000 locations nationwide, said the company was “heartbroken by this tragedy” and its thoughts were with the man and his family.
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“It is important to note that this unfortunate accident was caused by a reckless driver who pled guilty, and this store followed all local building codes and ordinances,” the spokesperson added.
