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Family Of Woman Killed By CTA Bus Gets Measure Of Justice

Family of Ludwika Szynalik
Family of Ludwika Szynalik: Pawel Lupa, Ella Lupa with their son. (Credit: Regine Schlesinger/WBBM Newsradio)

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The family of a Polish immigrant who was killed by a CTA bus five years ago says more important than the $5.5 million settlement they're getting, is the agency's long-delayed admission that it's to blame.

On New Year's Eve in 2007, 59-year-old Ludwika Szynalik had just gotten off the bus and was getting her bicycle from its bike rack, when the driver pulled away and dragged her to her death.

LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's Regine Schlesinger Reports

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The family's lawyer, Tim Cavanagh, says for five years, the CTA insisted she was somehow responsible.

Ludwika Szynalik
Ludwika Szynalik, killed by a CTA bus. (Credit: Family photo)

On the eve of the trial, as Cavanagh was about to show a jury the CTA's own video from the bus security camera, the agency finally acknowledged that its driver was at fault.

Cavanagh says the video is powerful.

"It takes your breath away," he said. "This woman who's standing there - and she actually looked up, you can see her and in that second you can almost understand that she was like 'You got to be kidding me, you're going to run me over.' "

Her sons, who came from Poland for the trial, say it hurt that the CTA was blaming their mother for her own death.

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