$148 million awarded to woman paralyzed in shelter collapse

CHICAGO (AP) - A jury has awarded $148 million to a woman partially paralyzed by a collapsed bus shelter at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

Tierney Darden of suburban Vernon Hills wept as Judge Clare McWilliams on Wednesday read the jury's decision in a Cook County courtroom. The trial lasted seven days and the jury deliberated four hours.

Outside the courtroom, Patrick Salvi said the 26-year-old Darden is grateful the jury recognized the severity of her injury and "the long road that she has ahead of her."

The city did not have an immediate comment on the verdict.

In August 2015, Darden, then a dance student, was standing with her mother and sister on a lower-level street that accesses O'Hare's Terminal 2 during a storm. High winds toppled a pedestrian shelter onto Darden.

The woman's lawyers say her spinal cord was severed, and she was left paralyzed from the waist down.