DWP Settles a $200,000 Tractor Trailer Collision Case

The following blog post DWP Settles a $200,000 Tractor Trailer Collision Case is republished from Dwyer Williams Potter

Accidents involving cars and tractor trailers have the potential to be deadly.  If you or a loved one have been injured in circumstances similar to the following case, you should speak with a law firm that specializes in truck accidents immediately.

Circumstances of the Accident

Our client was driving his motor home in the parking lot of the TA Truck Stop in Coburg, Oregon. His wife and three children were passengers in the RV, which was the last vehicle stopped behind a line of commercial semitrailers headed toward the exit of the parking lot. The bad driver was driving a 2007 International semi truck with trailer, with a gross vehicle weight of 80,000 pounds. The tractor trailer was approximately 10-15 feet in front of our client’s RV, which was stopped at an angle. At that time, the driver of the semit truck backed up in an apparent effort to make room for another vehicle backing up in front of him. As he did so, our client realized the semitrailer was headed toward his RV, so he honked the horn and attempted to put the RV in reverse. Before he could do so, the semitrailer collided with the front of our client’s RV. The collision caused $6,793.87 in damage to the motor home. Though the collision was low speed, the weight of the semitrailer caused a significant impact, as evidenced by the damage to our client’s motor home. As a result, our client sustained injuries to his neck and back. However, he was on vacation at the time, headed for Disneyland with his family. Rather than ruin the family trip, our client simply endured his back and shoulder pain for the week. Ten days after the collision, our client gave a recorded statement to the insurance adjuster for the trucking company. At that time, he described his symptoms to include lower back pain, neck pain and numbness and throbbing in his right arm that was waking him up four to five times a night. When he returned from vacation with his family, our client made the first available appointment with his neurosurgeon, who had previously treated our client for a lumbar disc herniation caused in a prior car accident MVA. (Note: our client had previously undergone an L4-5 microdiscectomy after an MVA in 1998, but that procedure was performed by a different provider.) The chart note for our client’s initial visit shows that he had symptoms of severe neck pain, right arm pain and numbness, headaches and low back pain. In that chart note, his neurosurgeon noted our client “was asymptomatic prior to his motor vehicle collision on 8-19-2012.” Our client, who worked as an appliance technician, was advised not to work due to his new injuries. Indeed, testing revealed a cervical disc protrusion at C6-7, where an annular tear injury (caused by the MVA at issue in this matter), nerve-root impingement and significant pre-existing degenerative changes were also found. Our client had no neck problems or symptoms for nearly a decade before this crash. However, the symptoms resultant from this crash did not resolve, and it was ultimately necessary for him to undergo neck surgery.

Difficulties of the Case

Our client was represented by an attorney in Portland. However, that attorney could not get his case settled, and filed the claim in state court. Because the case was removed to federal court, the Portland attorney sought us out, as we have considerable federal court experience. Rather than refer the case to us outright for litigation, we decided to co-counsel the case with the Portland attorney. While our firm solved the federal court issue for the Portland attorney, there still existed many hurdles in the case. As noted above, our client had cervical spine injuries that occurred some years prior after getting knocked down by a city bus. An MRI at the time showed “Mild central disc protrusion at C5-6 … Mild annular bulge at C6-7. This is also present at C3-4.” Thus, there existed a significant prior history of injury with objective change to his cervical spine, which the insurance carrier for the trucking company latched onto, arguing that the need for surgery was due to these degenerative changes, and not to any injury stemming from the trucking accident. More problematic was the fact that our client had prior lumbar spine surgeries, including a fusion. The first, in 1998, was performed after he suffered a lumbar disc herniation at L4-5 in an MVA. This surgery was successful and our client’s symptoms resolved – that is, until he was in a second MVA in May of 2003. As a result, he underwent a lumbar fusion surgery five months after that accident. Unfortunately, the fusion failed to resolve his symptoms, so he underwent a third surgery in May 2004. This procedure was listed as a “re-exploration with extensive lumbar laminectomy and stand-alone interbody fusion of L4-5.” Though the wound from that surgery became infected, the procedure was otherwise a success. His neurosurgeon declared our client medically stationary on 9/7/2004, though with a moderate permanent partial disability preventing him from lifting more than 35 lbs, performing any repetitive lifting, bending or stooping, or sitting or standing in a stationary position for more than two consecutive hours. All went fairly well, until October 2004, when our client suffered a lower back strain after a refrigerator fell toward him and he was forced to support it. That condition ultimately resolved, and he sought no further treatment from his neurosurgeon until June 2010, one month after he was in a third motor vehicle accident. At that time, he was experiencing low back pain and radiculopathy into the right leg. A CT scan showed the crash had caused traumatic injury to the prior lumbar spine fusion at L4-5, which was corrected by a second surgery on October 12, 2010. That surgery was ultimately successful in resolving his symptoms. He was declared medically stationary on March 15, 2011 and released to his “regular occupation” with the continuing restriction that he not lift more than 35 lbs. However, with all of these significant low back injuries and surgeries, the insurance company attempted to blame the symptoms after the semi crash on these conditions, arguing that a low impact collision could not do as much damage as he claimed. The insurance company bolstered its position by pointing to our client’s significant spinal degeneration and prior permanent low back restrictions.

Actions Taken by Our Injury Attorneys

We associated in the case and handled the litigation. Discovery revealed several useful nuggets of information relative to the crash. We worked with our client’s neurosurgeon to get his opinion as to what injuries were caused by the crash, and also to pin down his future related symptoms and treatment. We also worked with a vocational expert and an economist to ascertain our client’s lost earning capacity secondary to his injuries. After months of preparation, we ultimately convinced the trucking company’s insurance carrier to attend mediation.

Resolution

At mediation, the insurance company agreed to settle our client’s case for $200,000. We were also able to reduce the amount of money he was obligated to pay back to his own insurance carrier out of the settlement proceeds for medical expenses it had already paid. While the collision in this case was fairly minor, many collisions involving tractor trailers can be devastating.  If you've been injured in such an accident make sure you have an experienced truck accident lawyer on your team.  To see more cases we have successfully settled, check out our results page. Click here to see the location of the accident.

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