Injured while traveling? For one Baltimore woman on a business trip, getting injured on the job meant many expensive and painful surgeries for months. However, after a successful settlement out of court, the young professional and single mother received $2 million for the costs associated with her injury.
What Happened
The woman, who was traveling from the Baltimore-Washington International Airport to a Hilton Hotel in the area, climbed into a shuttle van when the van’s driver inadvertently closed the door with significant force on her hand. The women suffered severe nerve and bone damage and underwent multiple surgeries. Due to ongoing pain, the woman had additional operations, including multiple digit extensor tenolysis, which is used to release tendons from surrounding tissue. This happens when scar tissue forms adhesions. In addition, she underwent implant surgery for spinal cord stimulation and received ongoing ganglion injections to rehabilitate motion and feeling in her injured hand.
How Can a Personal Injury Lawyer Prove Liability
This is an integral part of any lawsuit. Essentially, the personal injury lawyer has to show a jury not only what happened but what could have been avoided. This takes many forms, such as a common carrier driver’s error as in this case, to one where an accident at an intersection causes severe injuries to a motorist.
Let’s look at the latter scenario. In this case, a truck and a passenger vehicle were approaching an intersection at almost the same time on Highway 101 in California. The truck driver entered the intersection first, and unable to stop in time, the car driver continued into the intersection and crashed into the truck. The truck driver maintained that the car should have stopped since his truck was already in the intersection. The car driver said that he was unable to stop quickly enough to avert the accident and that the truck driver should have recognized that when he entered the intersection.
3D-Technology Helps a Jury Understand
The truck driver’s attorney needs to prove that the motorist should have been able to stop in time if he was traveling at the posted speed limit. Showing the jury that is the hurdle. Today, some car accident lawyers are using 3D-technology to prove the point. While not admissible in court on its own, used in conjunction with an expert’s testimony, such 3D-technology is invaluable.
What Was Done
The investigative team needed to show what would have happened at different speeds. To do this, the team placed a camera on a car’s dashboard and drove the car through the intersection at the legal speed limit of 55 mph. When this was done, a laser camera scanned the area so that everything about the car’s movement through the intersection was captured. This video capture could them be used to simulate the car moving at different speeds starting at 55 mph and up to 80 mph with image overlays for time and distance to impact.
Using this, an expert could postulate that if the car had been moving at the legal speed limit, the driver would have had ample time to stop. However, when the car was moving at 80 mph, it would have been unable to stop, ending in a collision similar to the crash, proving that the car was traveling at an illegal speed. While the truck driver’s full liability was not eliminated, it became clear the car driver was also negligent and responsible for the crash.
How This Helps
Using the information the truck accident attorney provided, the jury had a vision of what happened and how it might have been avoided. Since California is a comparative negligence state, the liability was assigned to the car driver, enabling the truck driver to receive a fair judgement. The use of 3D-Forensics is an important tool in jury trials.
David Will Prove Your Case
David Azizi uses every tool to prove that his clients should receive fair compensation for their accidents. If you have been injured in a car or big rig accident, do not hesitate to call David for a free consultation. He will answer your questions and explain what he will do to prove that you deserve to recover damages. Call 800-991-5292 or chat with us online.
