N.J. Turnpike Authority paid nearly $1M to settle 7 lawsuits, including one involving model that was killed (2025)

Antonio Calanni/APHeather Bratton, a fashion model who died in a three-car crash on the New Jersey Turnpike in 2006. The Turnpike Authority paid $125,000 to her estate.

WOODBRIDGE — The New Jersey Turnpike Authority settled at least seven lawsuits in the last year and a half — amounting to nearly $1 million in payouts to plaintiffs — rather than take its chances on long, costly court battles.

Among them was a $60,000 settlement with a man left with chronic back, hip and leg pain after a fall at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel. In another case, the authority agreed to pay up to $150,000 for the legal fees of a paraplegic who said he had encountered inadequate parking and inaccessible wheelchair ramps and bathrooms at Garden State Parkway rest areas in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The authority also agreed to modify the rest areas to better accommodate the disabled.

In perhaps the most tragic case, the agency agreed to pay $125,000 to the estate of Heather Bratton, a 19-year-old fashion model who was at the height of her career — she'd landed the cover of Vogue's Italian edition — when she was burned to death in a turnpike crash five years ago.

Bratton was in the back seat of a New York cab heading to Newark Airport in 2006 when the cab — a 2003 Ford Crown Victoria — suddenly shut down in a center lane near Exit 14 in Newark. The cab was stationary and without lights or power. Another vehicle, traveling between 45 and 50 mph, rear-ended the taxi, which burst into flames, according to the state police report.

Bratton, according to Turnpike Authority records, "was trapped in the (taxi) and burned alive."

Bratton's family sued Ford Motor Co. and ultimately settled a product liability claim for an undisclosed amount, according to Dennis Donnelly, an attorney for the woman's estate. But the family also held the Turnpike Authority responsible because the highway lights in the immediate area of the accident were not functioning when the 5 a.m. accident occurred, Donnelly said.

"There was a comment in the police report that the lights in that section of the turnpike were out," Donnelly said. "The fact that the state trooper not only noted the fact that the lights were out in the area but listed that in the police report as a contributing cause obviously ups the ante."

Donnelly added, "It clearly was a factor." It hindered "the ability of the car that hit her to see them."

The types of lawsuits transportation agencies face vary widely and are inevitable for an agency as massive as the Turnpike Authority, transportation experts say. In addition to the turnpike and parkway, which saw more than 600 million vehicles combined last year, the toll roads agency oversees 20 rest areas and contracts with the state police to have troopers dedicated to both roads. The agency also owns the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel.

William Ward, a former deputy attorney general for the state Department of Transportation who now represents clients fighting the state in eminent domain cases, said highway agencies can face suits for alleged design defects, the negligence of employees and construction accidents, among other things.

Ward said most cases are related to accidents.

"Just look at the turnpike and the amount of roadway they have and the amount of accidents," he said.

Turnpike Authority spokesman Thomas Feeney said the agency is sometimes named in cases against troopers who patrol the parkway or turnpike or against the arts center.

Ward said that in many instances, settling with a plaintiff is the more cost-effective option for a government agency if it can cut its losses and not incur any attorney's fees.

"You know exactly what your liability is if you settle," he said. "If you go into a jury trial, you could end up with fees."

The Turnpike Authority board only votes on expenditures of $35,000 or more, according to Feeney. Though the board voted to settle seven cases in the last year and a half, there were no board votes on large settlements in 2009, according the minutes of the meetings posted on its website.

These figures do not include eminent domain or workers' compensation cases.

Feeney said there are currently 33 open cases against the agency that were filed between Jan. 1, 2010, and July of this year. Of those, 23 were personal injury or wrongful death cases, four were employment cases, four were civil rights cases involving police, one was environmental and one involved real estate, according to Turnpike Authority data.

Feeney said the decision to settle a case, rather than go to a trial, often hinges on whether the agency can successfully have the case dismissed in court. "If not," he said, "it heads to a trial, and it starts getting into real money."

The agency did lose in a court case that went to trial in May 2010.

A jury awarded $5 million to a man who sued a state trooper for alleged use of excessive force during a stop on the parkway, according to published reports.

When there is a settlement, Feeney said, it doesn't necessarily mean the authority is admitting liability. "The decision to settle is always based on how much the litigation would cost the authority and what our exposure would be if we were to lose," he said.

Tim McDonough, a former deputy director of the New Jersey Highway Authority, which operated the parkway before the Turnpike Authority took over responsibility, said government agencies would rather not risk the cost of going to court, "knowing the court system today, and how the court system leans toward those who have been harmed or offended."

McDonough added, "When you think about the hundreds of thousands of people that ride those two roads every year and the possibility of accidents and other things that may happen to other people — whether it be driving on the road, being cut off or you walk into a service area and trip, or you go into a service area and don't like the food," it's better to settle "than have some protracted court case where you can have hundreds of thousands in legal fees."

McDonough now runs a consulting firm, The Success Group, in Trenton.

In the case of the model Heather Bratton, special counsel for the Turnpike Authority noted that the cost of going to trial could have been immense because "Ms. Bratton was a rising young fashion model who had already appeared on magazine covers, and her earning potential was significant."

They also noted that "at the time of the accident, it was 'very dark,'Y" because in addition to the taxi's lights shutting down, "several light posts along the turnpike" were not working.

Attorneys advised the agency that considering a variety of factors — including "the jury verdict potential in this tragic case, a settlement in the amount of $125,000 seems very reasonable."

Feeney said the lights that were out on the turnpike are "an ongoing problem." However, he said the Bratton case was not the impetus for repairing the lights.

"We admitted nothing in court," Feeney said. "When lights are out, we try to fix them. . They're all 60 years old."

Feeney added: "The New Jersey Turnpike is one of the safest highways in the nation, but we understand that Ms. Bratton's family and friends take no comfort in that. That's why we work every day toward eliminating all fatal crashes. One death on our roads will always be one death too many."

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