A Bronx motorist who survived a horrifying crash on the George Washington Bridge has secured a $10.5 million settlement after a piece of metal debris blasted through his windshield and into his head, causing devastating brain injuries, according to court filings.
Joseph Rosario, who was 28 at the time, was driving across the bridge on March 2, 2020, when a 24-inch steel suspension part from a truck — left on the roadway — was launched into his 2015 Chrysler 200. The metal tore through the windshield and struck Rosario in the head with such force that it fractured his skull before landing in the back seat, according to the lawsuit filed that August in Essex County, New Jersey.
Rosario was taken to Hackensack Meridian Health, where doctors performed multiple brain surgeries. Court papers said he suffered a skull fracture and severe swelling of the brain.
“How he lived is a miracle,” Rosario’s attorney, Ed Capozzi, told NJ.com.
Capozzi said his legal team then began investigating how long the dangerous debris had remained on the bridge. The lawsuit, which named the Port Authority, said the team reviewed extensive driver dashcam footage along with dozens of Port Authority video logs.
That review showed the truck suspension component that injured Rosario had been on the roadway for at least 10 minutes, the attorney said.
“We know it had been there for that [ten minutes] long, we could see cars avoiding it and changing lanes at that location,” Capozzi told the outlet.
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The attorney’s team also identified 12 other incidents involving vehicles struck by debris on the George Washington Bridge, though Capozzi told NJ.com that “those are the ones we know about.”
He blasted the Port Authority — the New York-New Jersey agency that owns, operates and maintains the George Washington Bridge — for not properly cleaning the debris for days and leaving the metal object that struck Rosario on the bridge’s roadway.
“They should have done a better job maintaining the bridge,” Capozzi told the outlet.
“They walk the bridge once a day and pick up four pickup trucks worth of debris. They hadn’t done that for five days before the accident.”
The $10.5 million settlement was reached on June 17, but Rosario’s life has been changed forever, according to his attorney.
Despite receiving treatment and rehabilitation for his injuries, Capozzi said he’s now forced to use a wheelchair and needs his parents to take care of him.
“He will never be the same again,” the attorney said.
The Port Authority did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
