Officer
Awarded $5.7 Million After Disabled in Wreck
(As reported in the Daily Herald 10/29/96)
By Laura Janota
Daily Herald Staff Writer
On May 7, 1991, Mundelein police officer Susan Roy spotted
an injured cat on Route 45 just south of Courtland Street.
She stopped her squad car on the road, turned on the roof-top
lights, got out and opened the trunk for her night stick
to move the animal off the road.
It was to become an act of kindness that would tragically
alter the life of the 28-year-old Roy, an officer of two
years who was seven weeks pregnant.
As Roy peered inside the trunk, a limousine driven by former
Skokie resident George Varnai ran into her. Pinned
between the two vehicles, Roy lost her right leg and the
fetus that night.
Roy's left leg, badly broken in several places, has never
recovered, leaving Roy to spend nearly half of each day
in a wheel-chair.
More than five years later, the McHenry County woman, who
has gone through multiple surgeries, has been awarded $5.75
million because of the injuries.
"What this woman went through was trauma," said
Timothy J. Cavanagh, an attorney for Roy. "She's
permanently disabled. She experiences pain every day."
A panel of three arbitrators considering the case found
Friday that Varnai and his limousine company, Elite Limousine
Ltd., were largely to blame for the accident.
Varnai, who told arbitrators has was going 30 mph, was ticketed
for failing to reduce speed to avoid a collision.
He was found guilty and fined $500 by a Lake County Circuit
Court judge in 1991.
"It was dark out that night, but there was an awful
lot of lighting on the street," said Cavanagh, who
believes Varnai should have seen the squad car. Cavanagh
said Varnai's skid marks measured 44 feet.
Varnai's insurance couldn't begin to cover the tragic accident.
His insurer, Corporation Insular De Seguro, went bankrupt
and was liquidated by the Illinois Guaranty fund in 1992.
That left Roy to try and collect through an uninsured motorist
claim from the Village of Mundelein's insurer, the Intergovernmental
Risk Management Agency.
"We think the award was high, but we know she suffered
some serious injuries," said Jim DeAno, attorney for
IRMA.
The Oakbrook Terrace-based insurance pool provides coverage
for 67 member governments in the region, including the Village
of Mundelein.
IRMA argued that Roy shouldn't have parked
her squad car in the middle of the roadway.
There also were questions raised about whether
Roy's trunk lights worked and whether Varnai could have
seen the squad's roof-top lights with the trunk open.
"He should have seen the squad car from
500 to 800 feet...you can only speculate that he obviously
didn't have his eyes on the road," said Cavanagh.
IRMA hasn't made a decision yet on whether
to challenge the award, the second largest ever lodged against
the 17-year-old agency, said Sal Bianchi, the pool's executive
director.
But the insurance pool has filed a request
with DuPage County court asking that the award by "offset"
by more than $800,000 in worker's compensation, disability
and other payments already made to Roy, court records show.
If the award stands, member governments could
find their insurance rates rising in the future, Bianchi
said.
"Certainly any loss of this magnitude
affects the rate," said Bianchi.
Roy, now 33, has been through more than four
surgeries since the accident. She has been unable
to work, although she did work as a Lake Zurich police radio
dispatcher for three months, said Cavanagh.
"She couldn't do it. She is not
capable of working," the attorney said.
