DETROIT — The city of Detroit has agreed to pay $5.85 million to settle a lawsuit over the death of a pedestrian struck by a city bus, the second death of the same driver since 2015.
Wayne County Judge Kathleen McCarthy signed off on the deal last week, court records show.
Janice Bauer, 67, was hit by a city bus while walking on a crosswalk in downtown Detroit in June 2023.
The driver was Geraldine Johnson He was sentenced to six months in prison A year ago after pleading no contest to any violation causing death, a misdemeanor.
Johnson was involved in 19 other accidents and was known to first responders as a danger behind the wheel, attorneys for Bauer’s estate said in a lawsuit. A man was killed in 2015 while trying to remove his bicycle from the front of a bus.
The union representing the drivers indicated that Johnson did not want to resume driving after the first death but had no choice if she wanted to keep a job with the city.
Johnson has not spoken publicly about Bauer’s death. “She simply didn’t see it,” said Sharon Clark Woodside, her attorney in the criminal case.