Driver And City To Pay More Than $9.0 Million For Car Accident Badly Hurting Student

Driver And City To Pay More Than $9.0 Million For Car Accident Badly Hurting Student

Parents normally assume that their kids will be safe when they go to school. It is not in their world view that their child will be hurt in a vehicle accident while crossing the street just in front of their school. Indeed, don't towns and counties in which the school is based make certain that there are signals reducing the speed limit in zones around schools and controlling intersections in the area of the school with stop signs and traffic lights? And aren't drivers more careful in school zones? Do not be so convinced.

In one published case, a fifteen year old young man was crossing the street to get to his high school and he was hit by a car. The young man was in a crosswalk at the time of the accident. The impact left him with a brain injury and he ended up in a coma for a few weeks followed by rehabiliation therapy. He was left with problems with his memory, his speech and decision making. Furthermore, he suffered physical disabilities including balance and walking. Once he returned to school, he needed to be placed in special education as he was unable to keep up with regular classes. The cost of his treatment to that point came to nearly three quarters of a million dollars.

Due to the nature and extent of his disabilities he needs life-care. The life-care plan includes estimated future medical expenses up to $3.5 million. Furthermore, he will now not be able to do a variety of jobs and so he will lose around $2,200,000 in lost earning capacity. This is a measure of the difference in the income he was anticipated to have had in the event he had not been injured and the lesser income he will likely be able to earn because of his accident related disabilities.

The law firm that represented the young man initiated a suit on behalf of the student's parents, both individually and on their son's behalf, against the driver and against the county. The driver admitted her negligence but maintained that the county and, yes, the young man were also at fault. The city, in turn, denied any liability for the accident and claimed that the driver and victim were the only ones at fault.

In preparing the case the law firm retained an accident reconstruction expert, a physician concentrating in pediatric neurology and traumatic brain injury, a life-care planning specialist, and an economist. The law firm documented that they took the case to trial. The jury reportedly found that the driver was seventy nine percent at fault, the county was twenty percent responsible, and the student was 1% responsible for the accident. According to the report by the law firm, they obtained a jury award of $9.14 million for the student and his parents.

The jury was obviously convinced that there were things that not just the driver but also the county could and should have done which would have prevented this accident. Possibly every county ought to consider this lawsuit as a model of a foreseeable and avoidable catastrophe and take steps to make the region around their school safe for children. And possibly in doing what's right they can avoid another horrible accident that extensive changes the future of a young person. And they might also safe themselves from other significant jury verdicts.

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