News

THE HERALD, May 29, 1998
Broward Local

"Paralyzed man grateful for settlement"

by Christina A. Samuels

Frank Roster is grateful.

Grateful to the jury that awarded him millions when he was struck by a drunk driver on State Road A1A in Hollywood and left a quadriplegic. Grateful to his lawyers. Grateful to the woman who married him after the accident, when it was clear he would never be the same man he was before that day in 1988. Grateful to his friends, the ones who never left his side during the bad times.

And finally, grateful to the Florida legislators who, 10 years after the accident and four years after the trial, gave Roster a $4.6 million settlement.

The bill awarding him the money - a necessity for every settlement over $100,000 against a state agency - slipped into law last week, little noticed amid the normal partisan battles. Legislators agreed with Roster's contention that the road was too narrow, bringing bikes and cars perilously close.

Previous new stories have left out Roster's expression of thankfulness. He doesn't want that to happen again.

"If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be where I am today," Roster, 40, said.

It has been a long; hard road to get here.

A blank spot in his memory

The actual accident is a blank spot in Roster's memory. A resident of Hollywood for several years before the accident, he and then-girlfriend Jill Corcoran were riding south along A1A just before Hollywood Boulevard, on a clear April afternoon. They were on the road because the sidewalk was filled with walkers.

Roster was riding in front and spotted a curb cut where they could safely return to the sidewalk. Corcoran did. Roster didn't.

He was hit by a car, which crushed his spinal cord between the sixth and seventh vertebrae, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. He has some movement of his arms and shoulders, but cannot move his fingers.

The ambulance that took Roster to the hospital happened to drive by his apartment building.

"I remember telling them, just drop me off in my water bed and it'll be OK," Roster said. "I actually thought that I was dreaming."

Donald Moulton, the driver of the car, was convicted of driving while intoxicated. A jury decided he deserved 80 percent of the blame for causing the accident, but that the state was responsible too, for building a road that was 11 feet wide, instead of 12 feet wide, the state standard. Moulton could not be reached for comment. The Florida Department of Transportation appealed the jury's decision and lost.

Report to legislators

An excerpt from the conclusion of the report that went to legislators this session reads:

"I find that DOT could foresee that an accident such as the one at issue here could occur as a result of marking the lane in questions 11 feet wide instead of 12 feed wide as called for in the plans. DOT established a policy of creating wide curb lanes for bicycles so as to promote safety for bicyclists. DOT could foresee that by marking this lane 11 feet wide, instead of 12 feet wide, it was enhancing the risk of just such an accident occurring."

Sen. Howard Forman, a Democrat fro Pembroke Pines, sponsored Roster's compensation bill.

"It was a tough case. It raged for years, but it finally went through," Forman aid. But the department has done a better job of building roads with bicyclists in mind, he said.

"It has gone from a group of road builders to advocates of multimodal transportation, and that includes bikes and pedestrians."

Florida is one of only two states - Oregon is the other -- that now requires new roads and road rebuilding projects to include bicycle "facilities," which usually means a separate bicycle lane, said Theo Petritsch, the state's bicycle and pedestrian coordinator. That statute had been on the books for five years. On less extensive resurfacing projects, "our policy has always been to do what we can.," Petritsch said.

"At least something good came out of it," Roster said.

Money will pay for attendant

A year and a half after the accident, Roster married Jill. They live in Northwest Dade. The money from the settlement will help him pay hospital bills and pay for an attendant - a job that rested primarily on Jill Roster's shoulders. Eventually, the two want to move back to Hollywood, where their friends live.

"This is just very stressful, sad - what other adjectives are there? Unhappy, frustrating situation, " said Jill Roster, 36, a commercial loan officer at Sun trust Bank. "There's just a lot of frustration with this injury. Right now I'm a wife, I'm an attendant, I'm his emotional support."

Roster studies medical transcription at Miami-Dade Community College, with a computer program that allows him to translate works to type. An extensively remodeled van allows him to drive.

Roster has occasionally been asked to speak to other patients. "I tell them this is a really devasting thing that happens. But if you have the willpower, you can get through it."

But the loss is never forgotten.

Jill Roster had only days before brought the bike she rode with Frank Roster on the day of the accident. "I haven't ridden a bike since that day. I don't think I ever will, " she said. "Oh, I would," Frank Roster said

Sheldon J. Schlesinger, P.A. represents clients throughout the state of Florida including the cities of Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, Carol City, Cooper City, Coral Gables, Coral Springs, Davie, Deerfield Beach, Delray Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Hialeah, Hollywood, Jupiter, Lake Worth, Miramar, Miami, Oakland Park, Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Palm Springs, Pompano Beach, and Rivera Beach

Broward County • Miami-Dade County • Palm Beach County