Man left paralyzed by crash with state police vehicle settles claim for $9.5M
New York State will pay $9.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a man left paralyzed in a crash caused by a state trooper focused on his cellphone.
The sum is intended to compensate Erie County resident T.M., who was 70 when the crash in July 2019 left him paralyzed from the chest down.
Another victim left paralyzed, George Cole of Farmington, settled his claim against the state for $12 million last year. Claims are pending from three other victims who were injured but are still able to walk.
With McCann's settlement, confirmed by a state official familiar the terms, one trooper’s distracted driving has so far cost taxpayers more than $21 million and inflicted life-altering injuries.
When paid, the $9.5 million will be shared by McCann and his lawyers and will reimburse Medicaid, Medicare or workers' compensation for any costs fronted for the victim’s care.
McCann was working for Enterprise on July 15, 2019, when he and four co-workers boarded a Dodge Caravan and headed out to retrieve some rental vehicles in Jamestown.
Road construction near Dunkirk slowed traffic on the westbound Thruway to a crawl. Just after 1 p.m., Trooper Stephen C. Barker’s department-issued Dodge Charger sped toward the knot of traffic and slammed at 73 mph into the rear of the slow-moving minivan, according to a State Police report on the crash.
McCann was sitting with Cole in the middle row of seats, which was thrust forward. Court documents say McCann was permanently paralyzed from the T5 region of his spine – the thoracic region – down.
A State Police investigator accused Barker of two driving-related misdemeanors, stating that if he hadn’t been distracted by his cellphone, he would have seen the slow-moving cars ahead.
The road was flat, the weather was dry and sunny, and Barker was not hurrying to an emergency. But the investigator found that Barker had opened a Facebook page seconds before impact and through the course of his shift sent or received a text message every 83 seconds, on average.
In August 2020, State Court of Claims Judge J. David Sampson found Barker negligent. The judge's decision noted that lawyers for the state did “not come forward with any nonnegligent explanation.”
Some drivers in New York have done jail or prison time when their inattention to the road caused crashes. Those jail sentences usually involved fatalities but not in every case. A driver who ran into a state trooper on a roadside in Suffolk County in 2017, causing a severe brain injury, was sentenced to 30 days in jail for assault, given three years' probation and ordered to complete 1,000 hours of community service. Trooper Joseph J. Gallagher, who hailed from Buffalo, died three years later, but the driver was not charged in the death.
Trooper Barker was allowed to plead guilty to reckless driving after a more serious misdemeanor of reckless endangerment was dropped. There was no jail time, probation or even a fine. Sheridan Town Justice Lydia Romer agreed to a conditional discharge, meaning Barker had to pay only a $90 court fee.
At his sentencing, no mention was made of a crash or injured victims or distracted driving, according to a transcript. And none of the victims was consulted about the disposition, said Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt, who came into office a year after the deal was reached and later expressed his displeasure that no victim was contacted.
Barker, who had been with the State Police for five years, was terminated in August 2020, according to records from the State Comptroller’s Office.