A pedestrian severely injured when he was struck by a minivan that crashed in a Bridgeport intersection in 2014 has settled for nearly $1.5 million.

Council for Henry Cartagena argued sole proximate cause, or 100 percent fault, on the part of Bridgeport in securing the $1.49 million settlement, citing reports that indicated the accident was caused by a malfunctioning traffic light.

City attorney Christopher Rooney of Carmody Torrance Sandak Hennessey in New Haven elected during jury selection to forgo a trial. “It was an extraordinarily complicated case with a lot of difficult questions as to causation,” Rooney said Monday. “It was probably a good resolution of the case and everyone is satisfied.”

Cartagena, now 50, suffered a traumatic brain injury, fractured skull, a broken jaw, spinal injuries and broken ribs when he was struck on the sidewalk and pinned against a building by a minivan that had collided with a pickup truck in a five-way intersection connecting Barnum Avenue and Pixlee Street. An amended complaint arguing “sole direct and proximate result of a breach of the Defendant's statutory duty under C.G.S. §13a-149″ was filed in 2016 in Bridgeport Superior Court.

Represented by Donald Papcsy, Cartagena sued the city under the state's Highway Defect Statute, which requires proof that the defendants were aware a defect existed before the incident. Papcsy, a partner with Papcsy Janosov Roche in Norwalk, said discovery and depositions established the light had been malfunctioning for at least three days before the crash. Witnesses said the traffic light at Pixlee and Barnum was either completely disabled or malfunctioning, with all agreeing the signal would fail to turn green, Papcsy said.

Papcsy said the malfunctioning signal caused Felix Toledo's Ford F-150 to collide with Mariano Nieves' Nissan minivan. The lawsuit states Toledo was on Pixlee Street facing the malfunctioning light, and waited about one minute before slowly proceeding through the intersection, edging into traffic as the light failed to turn green. At the same time, Nieves was traveling east on Barnum Avenue through the intersection, where he had the green light. The cars collided and Nieves' vehicle careened onto the sidewalk on Barnum Avenue, crashing into Cartagena and pinning him against a building. The lawsuit does not indicate how fast the vehicles were traveling, but neither driver was ticketed.

Toledo was not at fault, Papcsy said, “because he proceeded through the intersection with reasonable care.” Likewise, Nieves was not at fault because “his vision was limited by a building that obstructed his view of the road Toledo was coming from. We were able to show evidence at mediation with the judge and the attorneys from Bridgeport that both drivers acted reasonably and cautiously under conditions that the city created.”

New Haven Superior Court Judge Robin Wilson oversaw the mediation.

Papcsy said through discovery he obtained access to alert-system logs and codes indicating someone from the city had opened a traffic box at the intersection two days before the accident. While it is not clear who opened the traffic box, Papcsy said only three city employees have access.

“During deposition they all said they did not remember being there at that time,” Papcsy said. “The city does not keep adequate records of who goes anywhere to maintain traffic lights in the city.”

Papcsy said it would have been nearly impossible for anyone from the city to have been at that intersection two days before and not have seen the light defect. He added that witnesses reported in deposition that the light had been malfunctioning at least four days before the accident.

In addition to ongoing medical expenses and loss of ability to work, Papcsy argued Cartagena “has suffered and will continue to suffer mental anguish, frustration and anxiety over the fact that he was and remains injured.” The lawsuit claimed economic and noneconomic damages as well as compensation for pain and suffering.

The Bridgeport City Council signed off on the settlement Dec. 27, to be paid through self-insurance pending Probate Court approval.