Articles Posted in Auto Accidents

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A Cook County jury awarded $110,000 in a Chicago car accident lawsuit where the elderly plaintiff required surgery after the accident aggravated her preexisting back problems in Janice Thomson v. Kenneth W. Mueller, 08 L 11010. Despite medical records that clearly showed that Ms. Thomson had a prior history of arthritis and back pain, the plaintiff was able to secure payment for her subsequent medical treatments. The reason for this being that in Illinois, as well as many other states, juries cannot deny or limit a party’s right to damages simply based on the existence of a preexisting medical condition.

The 64 year-old plaintiff Janice Thomson had been suffering from chronic back pain for almost ten years when she was involved in a Chicago car accident. At the time of the 2006 auto accident, Thomson was the passenger in a vehicle that was rear-ended by the defendant, Kenneth Mueller. Thomson’s vehicle had been stopped prior to the impact. Following the rear-end accident, Thomson’s back pain worsened and she eventually required surgery to relieve her symptoms.

Thomson filed a lawsuit against Mueller, which alleged that her increased back pain and subsequent surgery were caused by the 2006 rear-end collision. As is the case in most rear-end accidents, the defendant driver accepted responsibility for the auto accident itself. However, Mueller did contest the nature of Ms. Thomson’s injuries and contended that her surgery was not caused by the “minor” accident.

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Common sense tells us that it is much easier to avoid hitting a stopped car than a moving vehicle. For this reason, when reviewing car accident lawsuits, juries tend to find in favor of the non-moving party more often than for the moving driver. Such was the case in the Chicago personal injury lawsuit of Tracey Walker and Stacey Walker, a minor v. Raul Andrade, et al., 09 L 14073.

Tracy Walker had been driving her vehicle in Chicago’s West Garfield Park neighborhood when she was forced to stop her vehicle because a flatbed truck owned by J&L Towing was blocking the roadway. The defendant truck driver, Raul Andrade, had stopped the truck in order to unload the vehicle from the flatbed. However, rather than unloading it himself, Andrade allowed the vehicle’s owner, Jason Ward to drive the Chevy Caprice down off the flatbed’s ramp. As Ward was driving the Caprice off the truck he ran into the front of Walker’s vehicle.

Tracy Walker sustained soft tissue injuries to her back and to her right shoulder and arm. In addition, her twelve year-old passenger, Stacey Walker, sustained soft tissue injuries to her right arm. Both Tracy and Stacey Walker filed a personal injury lawsuit against J&L Towing, Andrade, and Ward for their negligence in unloading the flatbed truck. The defense repeatedly denied its liability and contended at the Cook County trial that the plaintiff had been contributorily negligent.

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As a personal injury attorney, you begin to see patterns in the types of injuries sustained as a result of certain accidents. For example, slip and fall injuries generally result in back, wrist, or ankle injuries. Likewise, rear-end collisions typically cause lower back and spinal injuries, as seen in the Chicago personal injury lawsuit of Joel Castillo v. Chicago Transit Authority, et al., 1343.

The plaintiff, Joel Castillo, was stopped at a red light in a Chicago intersection when he was rear-ended by a city bus. Like many victims of rear-end collisions, Castillo sustained injuries to his lower back. However, because Castillo was hit not just by another car, but by a bus, his injuries were perhaps a little more severe than most. Not only did he suffer from an herniated disc at his L5-S1 vertebrae, but also sustained a left rotator cuff tear.

Again, Castillo’s subsequent medical treatment mirrors that of most rear-end collision victims. He underwent physical therapy to try and improve the level of pain he experienced as a result of his rotator cuff tear and herniated disc. In addition, Castillo’s underwent epidural injections at the recommendation of his medical providers in an effort to relieve his continued pain.

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Biking in Chicago is a great way to get around town, avoid rush hour traffic jams, and get some exercise while reducing emissions. However, Chicago bikers are also at risk from the heavy traffic and congested roads. There has been a push by Chicago’s new mayor to create safer bike lanes and improve the quality of biking in Chicago. The personal injury lawsuit of Cameron Esposito v. Maria Sims, 07 L 13136, demonstrates why these measures are important.

In 2007, 26 year-old Cameron Esposito was riding her bike down Chicago’s busy Milwaukee Avenue. At the time, she was biking in one of Chicago’s designated bicycle lanes, a painted area that generally runs between the roadway traffic and parked cars on the street. As she was nearing the intersection of Milwaukee and Halsted, Maria Sims was driving her car out of a car wash and pulled out in front of Esposito.

Esposito was unable to swerve out of the way and ran right into Sims’s vehicle. As a result of the Chicago bike accident, Esposito suffered contusions on her right and left knees and hit her chin on Sims’s windshield. In addition, Esposito later reported experiencing sciatic nerve pain radiating from her back down her legs. The long-term effects of the Chicago bike accident ended up being the largest factor in the jury’s verdict, making up $62,767 of the total $100,000 award. The remainder of the award was comprised of $20,000 for past pain and suffering, $16,358 for past medical expenses, $500 for property damage to the bicycle, and $375 for lost time from work.

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An Illinois plaintiff’s request for a new trial was recently affirmed by the Illinois Appellate Court. The appellate court held that a new trial was necessary because the defense attorney had made too many statements in closing argument thought to be prejudicial to the jury. The court ruled that the defendant’s lawyer’s argument crossed the line of fairness and affirmed the grant of a new trial in Michael Lynn v. James L. Miller, No. 1-10-2799.

The original Cook County trial involved the personal injury case filed by the plaintiff Michael Lynn. In 2006, Lynn had been standing at the Chicago intersection of Wentworth Avenue and 33rd Street when he was hit by a car driven by defendant James Miller. In his complaint, Lynn alleged that Miller was driving at unreasonable speeds and had failed to keep a proper lookout, warn Lynn that he was approaching, or keep his car under control.

However, Miller denied that he was negligent or in any way responsible for the Chicago pedestrian accident. Instead, Miller pointed to a bicyclist as the sole proximate cause for the accident. As Miller was approaching the intersection where Lynn was standing, Ional Pusca was riding his bicycle through the intersection. Miller had to swerve to avoid hitting Pusca, which in turn caused Miller to hit Lynn. Given these circumstances Miller contended that it was Pusca and not himself who was responsible for the collision with Lynn.

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At the end of a personal injury trial, juries must not only decide who is responsible for the injury, but also assign a specific degree of fault to that party. For example, if a jury finds a general contractor is responsible for a construction worker’s injuries on a job site, then the jury must also specify the degree which it feels the general contractor was responsible, e.g., 60 percent, 70 percent, 75 percent, etc. The purpose of doing so is that if the jury finds the plaintiff was over 50 percent responsible for his or her own injury, then the defendant does not have to pay any damages.

The Chicago personal injury lawsuit of Harry Vasiliadis v. Joseph Cortese, 08 L 10080, is unique in that the jury found both parties to be equally responsible for the plaintiff’s injuries. As a result, the parties needed to share the burden of paying for the damages sustained as a result of the intersection accident. The jury determined those damages to be $74,899; the defendant driver was only responsible for paying 50 percent, or $37,449. In Illinois, if the plaintiff is found to be more than 50 percent at fault, then he or she can receive no damages.

The facts surrounding Vasiliadis dealt with a 2008 intersection accident involving the plaintiff bicyclist and the defendant driver. Vasiliadis was riding his bicycle down a one-way street in the opposite flow of traffic. As Vasiliadis entered the Chicago intersection of Cuyler Ave. and Lockwood Ave., he was hit by Cortese’s vehicle. Vasiliadis sustained a cervical spine fracture, which resulted in over $35,000 in medical bills.

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There is the old adage that practice makes perfect, a concept that is easily applied to driving ability. In general, the longer a driver has been driving, the better he or she is at it. This is why teenage drivers are required to log practice hours before being eligible for their license and also why insurance rates are so high for young drivers. With more driving experience comes better judgment and skills.

The Illinois personal injury lawsuit of Lewandowski v. Butler, 08 L 5450, illustrates the idea that newer drivers lack some of the knowledge and skill that comes with more experience. The defendant driver was 17 years-old at the time of the relevant car accident. The auto accident took place at the intersection of Jackson St. and River Road in East Dundee, where the teenage driver hit the plaintiff’s vehicle.

The teenage defendant was attempting to cross River Road and stopped at the stop sign as appropriate. He then continued through a line of stopped vehicles in the southbound lanes, at which point his view of the northbound traffic was obstructed by a large semi-truck. As the plaintiff was driving northbound on River Road, the defendant pulled out into her lane of traffic, resulting in the two-vehicle crash. As a result of the intersection accident, the plaintiff driver sustained severe back injuries, including exacerbation of her pre-existing herniated cervical disc injuries.

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In Illinois and Chicago, there are laws against talking on your cell phone while driving. The purpose of these laws is to eliminate a potential distraction to driving in an effort to increase driving safety and avoid preventable auto accidents. However, as is the case with any law, there are those who choose not to abide by the Illinois cell phone driving laws. The Illinois personal injury case Susan Budd v. Lynn Kelso, 06 L 11272, resulted from an auto accident where the defendant driver was talking on her cell phone.

In October 2004, Lynn Kelso was nearing the Willmette intersection of Ridge Road and Lake Avenue; she was talking on her cell phone at the time. Kelso proceded to drive her car into the busy intersection even though she didn’t have the right of way. At the same time, plaintiff Susan Budd had a green light and as such had begun to drive through the intersection. As Kelso ran the a red light, Budd was forced to come to a sudden stop. While Budd’s quick thinking prevented her from driving into Kelso’s vehicle, it also caused the vehicle immediately behind Budd to rear-end Budd’s vehicle. The rear-impact then forced Budd’s vehicle forward, causing her to hit Kelso’s car.

The 51 year-old Budd sustained lower back injuries as a result of the Cook County intersection accident. The rear-end impact aggravated plaintiff’s pre-existing degenerative disc disease and resulted in a lumbar disc protrusion. Budd underwent extensive physical therapy and eventually elected to have steroid injections into her epidural region in an attempt to relieve the pain.

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When we get into a train, plane, or cab, we expect that the person operating the vehicle will keep us safe, that it is their duty to us as passengers. Yet at what point do we actually become passengers? Is it when we begin to board the vehicle, or when we are inside and seated in the vehicle? The Chicago personal injury lawsuit of Daphne Franks v. Chicago Carriage Cab Corp., Chicago Elite Cab Corp., et al., 09 L 596, hinges on the question of when a person truly becomes a passenger.

The Cook County injury lawsuit involves 40 year-old Daphne Franks, who was talking to a cab driver in the early hours of the morning. At the time the cab was stopped about eight to ten feet from the curb and was partially blocking the flow of traffic. The plaintiff was leaning both her head and shoulders inside the front passenger window as she carried on a conversation with the cab driver.

Meanwhile, Stephen Nuter was driving down the street towards the stopped cab, which was blocking traffic. Nuter ended up rear-ending the cab while Franks was leaning inside the window. The impact from the car accident caused Franks to hit her head on the cab’s window frame as she fell to the ground. Franks not only lost consciousness, but sustained several cuts to her face and a fractured bone. In order to repair the damage caused by the Chicago car accident, the bartender/waitress underwent two plastic surgeries.

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Chicago is home to two baseball teams, the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox. The Cubs’ Wrigleyfield ballpark is located deep in the heart of Wrigleyville and is most easily accessed by public transportation. While the White Sox’s U.S. Cellular Field can also be reached via public transportation, it is also easily accessible from the expressway and has many parking options. As a result, many White Sox fans choose to drive to see their favorite team.

On game day traffic around U.S. Cellular Field can be extremely dense, as White Sox fans Nicholas Barbarigos and Dean Vla discovered on August 21, 2009. The Chicago fans were driving on the Dan Ryan expressway to see the White Sox battle the Baltimore Orioles. As Barbarigos’s vehicle neared the exit ramp at 33rd Street, it encountered a sudden stop in traffic. While Barbarigos was able to stop his vehicle in time, the cab driving behind him was not. The cab rear-ended Barbarigos’s vehicle, running it into the stopped car in front of it.

The White Sox fans brought an Illinois personal injury claim against the defendant cab driver and his employer, filed as Nicholas Barbarigos and Dean Vla v. Mohamed Ali Abdi and LW Cab Corp., 09 L 10066. The complaint alleged that as a result of the highway accident, both Barbarigos and Vla suffered from lower back pain. Barbarigos was able to treat his soft tissue injury and bulging lumbar disc conservatively. However, Vla needed to undergo a back surgery and fusion in order to repair the his severe cervical back pain.

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