The MTA will fork over nearly $1 million to the military family of a 51-year-old Bronx woman who was mowed down by a city bus, a jury decided unanimously yesterday.
Rachel Levy, 51, was struck and dragged in 2006 while standing near a bus stop on the Henry Hudson Parkway in Riverdale.
The driver, Vincent Brady — who passed a Breathalyzer test — drove her over but never stopped, court records show.
Detectives tracked down his bus hours later while examining vehicles at a Manhattan depot.
They found Levy’s blood under Brady’s bus, but police later cleared him of the woman’s death after he told them none of the roughly 20 passengers aboard his bus realized it had struck someone.
Levy’s distraught family — daughter Miriam, an Army veteran, and the victim’s elderly mother, Hadassah Levy — sued in Bronx Supreme Court.
“This has been a long, grueling fight for the MTA to take responsibility for my sweet mother’s death,” Miriam Levy, who will receive a part of the $950,000 sum, told The Post.
“We are grateful to the jurors and our lawyers for bringing justice into our home and hearts.”
Levy had been a volunteer clerical worker at Montefiore Hospital when she was killed. She also worked as a part-time home health aide while seeking full-time employment.
Her family’s lawyer, Rosemarie Arnold, blasted the MTA for denying responsibility for the accident and dragging the family through years of legal battles.
“It is already terrible enough that the family had to struggle for years to have their day in court,” said Arnold, who prosecuted the case alongside co-counsel Paige Butler. “Hopefully, they can finally have some closure.”
After the unanimous verdict was read, MTA counsel Trina Moore vowed to appeal the decision, a court source said.
“When a person enters an MTA bus or train, they put their lives in the hands of the operator,” fumed Arnold. “Shame on the MTA for trying to get away with this awful tragedy.”
The MTA declined comment yesterday.
poliveira@nypost.com