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The 13-year-old Toms River boy was headed to church in the back seat of a Cherokee Jeep on Washington Street in November 2016 when a U.S. Postal Service worker from Lakewood suddenly turned left onto Central Avenue, hitting the vehicle’s passenger-side fender with his truck, police reported at the time.
The impact sent the Jeep spinning into a tree, they said.
The boy suffered severe injuries, including facial bone fractures and a cut that permanently blinded him in the right eye, as well as psychological injuries, the New Jersey Law Journal reported.
Federal attorneys argued that the teen wasn’t wearing a seat belt at the time and wouldn’t have suffered such serious injuries if he was, the law journal reported.
The plaintiff, now 18, eventually settled the suit for $1.965 million, it said.
The driver and another passenger, both juveniles at the time, each brought separate claims of their own. All three teens have been identified in court papers only by initials.
ALSO SEE: Nearly $2 Million Settlement Results From Crash With U.S. Postal Truck Injuring Teen
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