A Northwestern University student was struck from behind by a driver on Sheridan Road in Chicago. The female bicyclist was in the midst of merging left when she was hit by the motorist.
She sustained a fractured vertebrae without paralysis, incurring more than $50,000 in medical expenses. The case settled for the full amount of available insurance.
A male bicyclist suffered a fractured leg after colliding with a friend who was cycling with him. The collision occurred when our client scrambled to get out of the way of an Allied Van Lines semi-tractor trailer which came perilously close to striking him from behind.
Though the truck never stopped and the driver was never identified, we filed a lawsuit against Allied in DuPage County, where the company was headquartered.
After all of the evidence was gathered, Allied Van Lines brought a motion to dismiss claiming that they were not liable for our client’s injuries. In support of their motion Allied pointed out that they did not employ any drivers, nor did they own any trucks. Allied Van lines is a sort of umbrella corporation. It contracts with moving companies who own trucks and employ drivers. When Allied contracts with a company they funnel business to the company and they allow the company to use Allied’s logo.
Illinois law dictates that a commercial truck bearing the logo and U.S. DOT number of a corporation is operating pursuant to the corporation’s authority, and therefore, the corporation is vicariously liable for the driver’s negligence. Because of this law, we argued that identification of the driver, ownership of the truck, and actual contact were all irrelevant.
The only relevant question before the court was whether or not there was a reasonable question of material fact as to whether or not the subject truck bore the Allied Van Lines logo and U.S. DOT license number.
A car meandered into a bicycle lane and almost struck a bicyclist. In order to avoid the collision the bicyclist pushed off the car and straddled her bicycle.
When she pushed off the car she felt a “pop” in her shoulder. She ended up with a latent injury to her shoulder, and she eventually had a surgery to correct the problem.
A 23 year old Chicago man was struck by a right-turning dump truck with an attached trailer.
The defense claimed that the bicyclist came off of a sidewalk and darted in front of the truck as it was entering an expressway on-ramp. The trucking company and its insurer defended the case aggressively, hiring an accident reconstruction expert who created a computer animation demonstrating what they believed was the bicyclist’s culpability for causing the crash.
However, after extensive investigation we learned that the truck’s right turn signal was not working at the time of the collision and that our client had no warning that the vehicle was turning into his path.
A woman driving a pick-up truck struck and killed a bicyclist as she was overtaking him on a rural road.
The defense claimed the bicyclist “swerved suddenly” into the path of the truck, but they eventually paid their full policy limits.
A 33 year old female bicyclist was struck from behind in Chicago by a taxi cab driver who fled the scene. She suffered torn cartilage in her left knee requiring surgery.
Employed as a flight attendant, her injuries left her unable to work for a significant period of time. She incurred over $60,000 in medical bills.
An elderly man was struck and killed by a minivan driver while riding his bicycle through a traffic intersection in Mattoon, Illinois.
The defense was prepared to present extensive scientific evidence from an accident reconstruction expert that the deceased man himself was at fault for the incident.
However, investigation uncovered a witness to the scene who observed the defendant driver speeding through the intersection while not paying proper attention.
A 59 year old Chicago accountant was struck by a left turning driver while riding his bicycle to work. The male cyclist suffered fractures to both lower bones of his left leg, a torn left meniscus, a fractured left hand and a broken nose. He underwent several surgeries to treat his injuries and spent months in a wheelchair.
The 24 year old driver was ticketed by police for failing to yield. Months after the crash, we accompanied the cyclist to traffic court, making sure that he was prepared to testify against the driver. His presence at the hearing compelled the driver to plead guilty to the charges against him. That admission of guilt could have been used against the driver if the civil personal injury case went to trial.
We later secured a settlement from the driver’s insurance company for the full amount of his coverage, $100,000, plus $1,600 for the damage to his bicycle. Thankfully, our client’s own auto insurance policy had a high underinsured motorist limit. Though he was not driving at the time, we were able to secure a $390,000 settlement from our client’s auto insurer bringing the total settlement to over $490,000.
