During a recent winter, a 17 year old female student was a passenger in a motor vehicle traveling on the north side of the Van Wyck expressway in Queens, New York. The driver of the vehicle skidded on ice, drove up an underpass and the unrestrained female passenger was ejected. She suffered permanent partial paralysis due to a fracture in the vertebrae in her neck. She also suffered a fractured skull and pelvis and a punctured lung. It was alleged that the ice condition was long standing in nature and ignored by both the City and State of New York for many years. The record breaking settlement came during the second week of jury selection.