$48-million jury award OKd

A judge Tuesday approved a $48-million jury award to a former Union Pacific Railroad employee who was left a quadriplegic after a work-related car accident last year.

The Los Angeles County Superior Court jury award to Eric Doi last month was the largest verdict ever to a plaintiff under the federal law that covers railroad workers injured on the job.

Railroads and their employees are not covered by state worker’s compensation laws.

Union Pacific spokesman Tom Lange said in a statement today that the railroad company would “pursue further judicial review.”

Doi, 30, was the passenger in a company truck last year when a co-worker behind the wheel became distracted and lost control of the vehicle.

The truck rolled over down an embankment, crashed through a fence and into oncoming traffic on a highway, said Donald Britt, an attorney for Doi.

“In that split second -- it happened so fast -- my life changed,” said Doi, a railroad signalman who had traveled from his home in the San Gabriel Valley to Tucson for work.

A certified emergency medical technician, Doi said he knew immediately what had happened to him.

“I couldn’t move my legs, and my arms were kind of flailing,” he said Tuesday in a phone interview. “I knew what the injury was, but at the same time I was hoping I was just in spinal shock. . . . I was hoping for the best.”

Doi now needs round-the-clock care and physical rehabilitation.

He relies on other people for everyday activities, from using the bathroom to eating a meal -- “all the little things we all take for granted,” he said.

Doi, who lives with his parents and younger sister in El Monte, said he has always been an optimist whose “every day is better than the day before.”

He said his injury was “the first time where I don’t know if things will be better.”

With his verdict finalized, Doi said he will move onto the next hurdles: He hopes to someday drive a car again, go back to school to finish his MBA and marry his fiance, Sarah.

Still, he said, “I wonder if things will ever be better than before, before the accident.”

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joanna.lin@latimes.com