Automobile Accident Due To Driver Texting

Automobile Accident Due To Driver Texting

Just settled an automobile accident where the defendant driver was texting. We received the policy limit of $100,000. My client is older but he had an exemplary driving record. He was healthy and happy before the accident. The settlement should have been higher because my client had significant injuries and they severely impacted his quality of his life after the accident. His settlement was limited because of the driver’s $100,000/$300,000 automobile policy.  I have learned to accepted what I cannot change and this is one of those things, but my client had a hard time accepting that fact. To him and his family it did not seem fair or even just.

This older man was super healthy before the accident and had been hospitalized once in the last 20 years. The other thing that made this case difficult was that the driver hit my client and hurled my client’s car into the intersection where he was hit again by another vehicle. We knew that the driver was definitely distracted and we suspected that she was texting while driving. She claimed to never see his car even though he was at a complete stop waiting for a green arrow to turn left in Palatine, Illinois. The speed of the driver’s car was estimated to be over 40 mph. She did not slow down. There were no skid marks. She just rammed her car into the back of my client’s automobile and changed his life forever. By the time of the second impact in the intersection he was unconscious. This defendant caused my client to suffer not one, but two impacts.

My client’s injuries were severe–broken neck, brain bleeds and brain surgery and he spent many painful months in therapy trying to recover.  It really was a horrible time for him and his wife. Although he is better now he is not the same.  When will people learn that texting while driving causes automobile accidents.  People are hurt, injured and killed by texting drivers.  Whatever that driver was texting, I hope it was worth it because with that single act she changed my client’s life forever. I would not want that on my conscious.