WOODBURY HEIGHTS — A Gloucester Township man has received a $1.5 million settlement from Hollywood Cafe after he lost part of his leg in a car crash following a 2012 bar crawl.

Kevin Fynes, of Blackwood, sought compensatory and punitive damages in the suit. He claimed that the sports bar continued to serve him alcohol after he was visibly intoxicated at the end of a St. Patrick's Day bar crawl on March 10, 2012.

The lawsuit, filed in June 2013, says that after Fynes left the Hollywood-sponsored event at the end of the night, he crashed his pickup truck into a guardrail at the 44.2 mile mark on Route 55 in Elk Township. The guardrail pierced the cab of the truck and Fynes lost the lower part of his left leg by "traumatic amputation" in the accident.

He was initially charged with driving under the influence, but those charges were later dismissed on Dec. 20, 2012 by Elk Township Municipal Court Judge Thomas North. The court administrator said they did not have a record that would explain the judge's reasoning behind the dismissal. Fynes lawyer said he was "not at liberty" to discuss why the charges were dismissed.

His attorney, Alfred Falcione, argued that Hollywood Cafe did not have any procedures in place to make sure participants had a safe way of getting home after the six-hour event, and that the bar had been negligent by allowing Fynes to keep drinking at the end of the night.

"This entire life-altering event could have simply been avoided if the Hollywood Cafe had required the participants in the pub crawl to hand over their car keys before the start of the pub crawl," Falcione said after he announced the settlement this week. "Making certain that participants in the pub crawl, after drinking for six hours, have a safe means of getting home is the minimum a bar should do."

Geri Jaffee, who represented Hollywood in the case, did not return requests for comment. In an answer to the original lawsuit, Jaffee states among its defenses that the "damages were caused by conditions over which the defendants had no control," and also that they "were caused by the primary and active conduct of third parties over whom the defendants had no control."

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Contact staff writer Andy Polhamus at 856-686-3729 or apolhamus@southjerseymedia.com