The $43 million settlement to a woman paralyzed from the neck down in 2020 after being struck by a police officer’s SUV could end up costing Buffalo taxpayers as much as $50 million.
The Buffalo Common Council’s Finance Committee recommended approval Tuesday for the issuance of a $43 million bond to pay for Chelsea Ellis’ pain and suffering, lost wages and what it will cost to care for her the rest of her life.
The bond will be paid back over five years, and the city will set aside between $9 million to $10 million annually to cover principal and interest costs, said Gregg Szymanski, investment and debt management officer in the Buffalo Comptroller’s Office.
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If approved, the settlement amount would be the city’s largest to date, said Buffalo Common Council Member Christopher P. Scanlon, who represents the South District.
The total payout over the five years will be about $47 million to $50 million, he said.
The $43 million settlement amount, which the Council approved last week, is the city’s largest to date, and it represents about 7% of what the city spends in a year. The city’s budget for the current 2023-24 fiscal year includes $576 million in spending.
“This is an unprecedented settlement for the City of Buffalo,” Corporation Counsel Cavette A. Chambers recently told city lawmakers.
Ellis, who was 28 at the time, was walking on a sidewalk on Main Street in North Buffalo with her friend Karley Mueller after a trip to the post office when the crash occurred on April 15, 2020.
Buffalo Police Officer Branden Lowe was driving to the scene of what would turn out to be a false report of a stabbing. He was traveling at speeds approaching 80 mph, attorneys for Ellis said, and trying to steer around another vehicle at an intersection. His patrol SUV struck a vehicle, careened onto the sidewalk and was traveling between 30 and 39 mph when it struck Ellis, sending her airborne until she landed 67 feet away.
Chelsea Ellis' life was changed forever when a Buffalo police SUV struck her on a sidewalk in 2020. On Friday, she appeared in a courtroom to testify in a civil suit against the City of Buffalo.
Ellis’ spinal cord was severed and her spine fractured. She was left quadriplegic.
An appellate court determined before a trial that the City of Buffalo was liable for the crash, finding that the officer acted with “reckless disregard for the safety of others.”
Doctors who testified in the damages trial said the kind of devastating spinal cord injury Ellis suffered is usually fatal.