A Miami-Dade County bus driver dragged a man's leg under her rear tires and the county handed him $200,000.
That's all Florida law required them to pay.
Ron DeSantis just signed the bill that forced them to pay the other $4.1 million.
What the Bus Driver Did at Bird Road and LeJeune
December 16, 2021 – Coral Gables, Florida.
Jose Correa stepped into the crosswalk at the intersection of Bird Road and LeJeune Road.
Miami-Dade County bus driver Traci Constant had already pulled the Metrobus past the stop bar into the intersection, waiting for oncoming traffic to clear.
As the light changed, she turned left.
Her left-side mirror struck Correa and knocked him to the ground.
She hit the brakes.
The bus's rear left tires had already run over and dragged his left leg.
Correa lost his leg below the knee and underwent multiple skin graft surgeries.
Miami-Dade County settled the lawsuit for $4.3 million.
Then paid him $200,000 and made him wait four and a half years.
How Miami-Dade Bought Itself Four Years With $200,000
Here's how this works – and pay attention, because this is exactly what government does when it hurts someone and doesn't want to pay.
Florida law caps what government agencies owe negligence victims at $200,000 per person.
To collect anything above that, a victim can't just enforce the settlement.
He has to come back to the state Legislature and ask lawmakers to pass a separate bill – called a claims bill – authorizing the full payment.
Miami-Dade agreed to the $4.3 million settlement.
Miami-Dade agreed to support the claims bill.
Then Miami-Dade sat back while Jose Correa spent four and a half years navigating the Florida Legislature to collect money a court already said he was owed.
This isn't an oversight.
This is the system working exactly as government designed it.
DeSantis Made Them Pay
SB 14 passed the Florida Senate 37–1.
The House passed it unanimously.
DeSantis signed it Wednesday.
In August 2025, he signed several claims bills forcing government agencies to pay nearly $18 million to victims they'd already been found liable to compensate.
In early 2026, he signed an $11 million claims bill for a man a government utility truck hit in 2015 – a case the victim spent nearly a decade fighting just to collect what the courts awarded him.
Every one of those signatures is a governor telling county bureaucrats and government agencies: you don't get to hide behind a $200,000 cap forever.
You're going to pay what you owe.
What This Tells You About Government
Your instinct about government is right.
When the government hurts you, its first move is to find the legal mechanism that limits what it owes you.
Not to make you whole.
Not to acknowledge what its employee did to you.
To minimize the check.
Jose Correa had a court settlement, a $4.3 million agreement, and Miami-Dade County's own signature on a promise to support the claims bill.
He still had to lobby the Florida Legislature.
He still needed a governor willing to sign the paperwork.
The people who tell you the government is here to help you should explain why a man with one leg had to spend four and a half years asking permission to collect what a government agency already admitted it owed him.
DeSantis gave him the answer Wednesday.
Sources:
- News Service of Florida, "DeSantis Signs Bill For Miami Man Hit By County Bus," WMBB News, June 11, 2026.
- Florida Politics, "Legislature OKs $4.1M payment to man who lost leg after Miami-Dade Metrobus hit him," March 11, 2026.
- Florida Senate, Special Master's Final Report, SB 14, 2026.
- Justice First Attorneys, "Florida Gov. DeSantis signs claims bill granting $11M to man injured in 2015 crash," January 31, 2026.
- Law.com Daily Business Review, "DeSantis Signs Bills Awarding $18M to Victims of Government Negligence," August 27, 2025.
