Articles Posted in Car Accidents

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Raquel Manzo, 53, a homemaker, was driving her car and stopped at a stop sign when Daniel Garcia Buenrostro, who was driving a dump truck, suddenly rear-ended her car. Manzo suffered neck and lower back injuries that required a cervical fusion at C6-7 with injections.

Manzo, who was a candidate for future cervical fusions at an adjacent level of her spinal column, incurred medical expenses of $373,000. She sued LGS Transport Inc., Buenrostro, and the owner of the vehicle, alleging negligence.

Manzo did not make a claim for lost income.

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Robin Chapman, 55, was driving to work when a tow truck owned by Super Dirty Recovery LLC and driven by its employee, Joseph McRaith, pulled out suddenly from a side street and collided with Chapman’s vehicle.

Chapman suffered a broken left elbow, a fractured right ankle, broken ribs and a fractured fibula.  She required three surgeries and continues to suffer from pain and mobility problems.

Chapman sued Super Dirty Recovery, alleging that it had negligently entrusted its vehicle to McRaith, who did not hold a valid driver’s license and allegedly had a criminal history.

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Amy Skiba, 43, was driving with two children, both 12 years old, when an oncoming driver lost control of his vehicle, crossed the center line, and struck Skiba’s vehicle head-on. Skiba suffered fatal injuries. She was survived by her husband and three children, one of whom is an adult.

Skiba’s adult child and representative for the two minor children sued Eaton Asphalt Paving Co., which completed a resurfacing project on the road approximately two months before this incident.

The Skiba family asserted that the defendant pavement company negligently performed the project by choosing not to mill the road and install a safety wedge as required by its contract with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.

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Carol Loevy, 59, entered an intersection in her SUV.  Michael Tobin made a right turn in front of Loevy’s vehicle in his pickup truck. His pickup truck collided with Loevy’s SUV.

She suffered neck and lumbar spinal injuries, including a herniated disk at C5-6.  She was later diagnosed as having radiculopathy in her extremities.

Loevy was an artist earning $15 an hour but has been unable to return to work. Her medical bills totaled $80,000.

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Juanita Marquez, 90, was a passenger in her daughter’s pickup truck. While the pickup truck was stopped in traffic, an SUV driven by a teenager, Aaron Dominguez, rear-ended the Marquez vehicle. The crash caused the Marquez vehicle to hit another vehicle in front of it.

Marquez suffered a cervical strain and a right shin injury, as well as hip and arm pain. She now requires a cane for walking and has become generally less independent than she was before this crash.

Marquez sued Dominguez, alleging negligent operation of his SUV. She did not claim past medical expenses. Dominguez admitted he had been using his cell phone at the time of the collision and conceded liability during the trial.

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Marina Kolchinsky and her mother, Lidia Kolchinsky, were severely injured in a car collision with a tractor-trailer in Illinois. They sued the truck driver and the two companies that contracted with him. The Kolchinskys filed in federal court based on diversity of citizenship. Illinois law controlled.

The district court entered partial summary judgment in favor of Western Dairy Transport LLC and WD Logistics LLC, concluding that the driver was an independent contractor. This was done so that the Kolchinskys could not hold the companies responsible for the driver’s alleged negligence.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Chicago affirmed the summary judgment for these two companies, ruling that the district court properly classified the driver as an independent contractor.

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The appeal in this case comes out of a jury’s verdict in favor of the plaintiff, Lanisha Blockmon, who was special administrator of the Estate of Walter Blockmon III. On July 11, 2014, Blockmon was driving on I-80 near the city of Country Club Hills, Ill., when his vehicle was hit from behind by the vehicle driven by the defendant, Jakobi McClellan. Blockmon died from his injuries. After his death, Lanisha Blockmon filed a 5-count fourth amended complaint in the Circuit Court of Cook County naming McClellan, Vector Marketing Corp. and Cutco Corp. as defendants.

Vector Marketing sells and distributes cutlery and other kitchen equipment manufactured by Cutco. The lawsuit alleged that in July 2014, McClellan, the defendant, was a sales representative for an agent of Vector and Cutco, and that at the time of the incident, McClellan was traveling between sales calls in his role as a Vector sales representative.

McClellan admitted that at the time of the incident he was using the mapping and GPS functions on his cell phone to check the location of his next sales call and to determine how late he was running, and that he was not looking at the road.

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In a divided First District Appellate Court decision, it was found that a private ambulance company cannot get the benefit of immunity given to emergency vehicles for a collision its medic allegedly caused. The appeals panel found that because the defendant, Joshua M. Nicholas, wasn’t transporting a patient in his Lifeline ambulance at the time he collided with the plaintiff, Roberto Hernandez, Nicholas and Lifeline were not immune from liability under state law.

The State Emergency Medical Services Systems Act immunizes ambulatory agencies and their employees if they’re providing emergency or non-emergency medical services. The Illinois Supreme Court in Wilkins v. Williams, 2013 IL 114310 held that “non-emergency medical services” included the non-emergency transport of a patient.

Nicholas was on his way to pick up a patient in Villa Park when he collided with Hernandez’s car on March 11, 2016 while exiting the upper lanes of Lake Shore Drive in Streeterville. As a result, state law did not “provide Nicholas or Lifeline with immunity from liability for any negligent acts or omissions which proximately resulted in damages to the plaintiff.”

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After a party, Vivence Bugilimfura drove seven of his friends home in his employer’s van. He had been drinking. He crashed the van into a concrete highway divider. All but one of the passengers who were in their early 20s were ejected from the van. Two of the passengers suffered fatal injuries, and the others’ injuries ranged from a bruised lung to multiple fractures. The medical expenses of those who survived ranged from approximately $26,300 to $496,100.

The lawsuit on behalf of the injured and deceased passengers alleged that Bugilimfura and his employer, All Citizens Transportation, were liable for the crash. The plaintiffs argued that All Citizens negligently entrusted the van to Bugilimfura, who had only recently received his driver’s license. The plaintiffs also maintained that Bugilimfura was driving while intoxicated. The lawsuit did not claim lost income.

The jury signed a verdict for the plaintiffs who were either injured or killed in the amount of approximately $15.4 million finding the defendants joint and severally liable. Essentially, the verdict means that All Citizens Transportation could pay the entire amount of the jury’s verdict.

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In this semi-tractor-trailer crash, the plaintiff, Angela Antonicelli, was a passenger in a vehicle traveling on Illinois Interstate 88.  Three lanes were closed for construction. Karl Browder was operating a semi-tractor and trailer traveling behind Antonicelli’s car.

The truck driver, Daniel Juan Rodriguez, was under the influence of cocaine and made an improper U-turn through the median and collided with Antonicelli’s vehicle, causing it to rotate.

The trucker, Browder, was unable to stop his semi-tractor and trailer and slammed into the Antonicelli vehicle.

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