Jul. 21—NORWICH — A 46-year-old city woman who was run over and injured while walking on a West Main Street sidewalk has won a $1.375 million settlement from a car rental company.
Wishtecha Doroshenko, a former security guard at Foxwoods, won the settlement from CAMRAC LLC as her lawsuit was scheduled to go to trial in May in New London Superior Court. State records show CAMRAC is the company name that does business as Enterprise-Rent-A-Car, which has a location in Norwich.
On Aug. 15, 2019, Doroshenko was on a sidewalk in front of Colonial Car Wash at 577 W. Main St. when she was hit and run over by a Hyundai Santa Fe driven by former CAMRAC employee Isaiah Mims, court records show. Mims had washed the vehicle and was pulling out of the car wash parking lot onto West Main Street when the accident occurred. The lawsuit had claimed "negligence and carelessness" on the part of Mims and CAMRAC.
Part of the evidence prepared for a jury, if the case had gone to trial, is surveillance camera footage that captured the accident. The footage shows that Mims, after hitting Doroshenko with an SUV, stopped and attended to her.
Doroshenko was represented by Shelley Graves and Kevin Smith of the New London-based law firm Faulkner & Graves. Smith said Doroshenko's injuries were extensive and she underwent an initial surgery to repair a fractured leg and a second surgery 13 months later to reconstruct her knee. She has some permanent damage to her left leg and still walks with a limp.
Graves, in a statement, said Doroshenko, along with the pain from the injury, had faced eviction proceedings because of financial difficulties associated with the loss of work.
CAMRAC and Mims were represented by Yelena Akim of Conway Stoughton LLC, who declined comment on the settlement. Sara Miller, a spokeswoman for Enterprise Holdings, apologized for what she referred to as "an unfortunate accident."
"We are glad that this matter has been resolved," Miller said in an email.
Doroshenko, who no longer works at Foxwoods, said in a statement to The Day that the settlement money would help her to move on with her life.
"As years go by and my injuries worsen, this money will help me get along," she said.