Man Who Rear-Ends Slow Moving Front-End Loader Has Major Wrist and Eyelid Surgeries

DISCLAIMER: The results are specific to the facts and legal circumstances of each of the clients’ cases and should not be used to form an expectation that the same results could be obtained for other clients in similar matters without reference to the specific factual and legal circumstances of each client’s case.

Our client was an 57-year old small business owner who was traveling southbound on Highway 441 in Mt. Dora on his way to work.  He was travelling in moderate traffic in the inside/fast lane of the highway.  Suddenly and without warning, the vehicle in front of our client’s swerved right into the outside lane.  Our client almost immediately encountered a construction vehicle – a front-end loader – in his lane of travel.

Our client initially thought the vehicle was stopped in the road, but we now know that the vehicle was travelling between construction sites along 441, and that the front-end loader was probably traveling approximately 5 mph.  Our client had not time to avoid the vehicle, slammed on his brakes, and drove directly into the rear of the loader.  The impact was catastrophic.  (We have handled wrongful death cases where the property damage was less than this client’s…)

Painful Hospital Course With Multiple Surgeries

Our client was airlifted by helicopter to South Seminole Hospital where he was immediately diagnosed with a severed eyelid and a badly fractured left wrist.  Our client underwent emergency cosmetic surgery to fix both his eyelid, as well as having plates, screws, and an external fixation device installed inside (and outside) his left arm.  A few days later our client was discharged from the hospital, but had to return a few days later for another surgery after his surgical pins starting backing out of his left arm.  While in the hospital, there was some kind of complication with the IV intended to provide our client with pain relief, so our client (a decorated military veteran) had to endure intense pain and suffer through it for about 48 hours until the problem was finally fixed by our client’s nurses.

Once our client finally got out of  hospital beds and started moving around, he also realized that he has aggravated a pre-existing low back injury.  He was diagnosed with an extruded lumbar disc.  Our client underwent multiple lumbar spine injections performed by his pain management doctor.  When those procedures did not provide sustained relief, our client also underwent bilateral rhizotomies in an attempt to quell our client’s pain.  Fortunately, the low back treatments have worked and our client is not currently scheduled for lumbar spine surgery.

Fault Was Hotly Contested

This case featured a strenuous liability defense seeking to place the entire blame on our client for rear-ending another vehicle.  Florida law actually presumes that the rear-ending driver is at fault in collisions like this one.  Our focus was on arguing that the Defendant caused the danger in the first place by operating a very slow-moving vehicle in the fast lane of the highway.  There are several statutes and driving rules that require slow-moving vehicles to stay in the outside lane unless engaged in the act of passing another vehicle.

Ultimately, we were able to convince the owner of the front-end loader to pay $450,000.00 to resolve our deserving client’s claim.

$450,000