Image, left, of accident from WNBC; image, right, of Paul and Donna Smith from WABC
How much insurance goes to a woman left paralyzed and widowed after an out-of-control cab plowed into her and her husband last October? According to the Post, just $200,000.
Donna, a nurse, and Paul Smith, beloved helicopter pilot for news stations, were leaving Docks Restaurant on Third Avenue at 40th Street when a speeding cab jumped the curb, hit a sidewalk planter, and pinned Paul Smith underneath. He later died while his wife fractured her pelvis; she is now "unlikely" to leave a wheelchair. One witness said the cab was going 50-60 mph, but the cabbie, only on the job for a few weeks, was never charged.
The Taxi and Limousine Commission requires cab companies to pay just the minimum amount of insurance, and this cab had a $200,000 policy maximum. Smith's lawyer John Zaremba says the couple made more than that in a year, "There is no amount of money that can compensate the Smith family for what they have lost. You have family that was destroyed, and a financial situation where this woman's going to struggle to pay her bills for the rest of her life."
Zaremba says "the law should be changed" and believes the cabdriver is still on the road.
