Student at a Florida University is Backed Over by a Beverage Distributing Truck
Energetic and outgoing in high school, the victim in this truck accident case was editor-in-chief of the yearbook, and in her senior year she took approximately 30 college credits at Palm Beach Community College to complete her core classes.
At the time of this truck accident, this 19 year old was a student at a university in Florida, and had a very bright future. Her GPA after the first semester of her freshman year was an impressive 3.4. This promising future was nearly derailed as a result of the accident that happened on the U.F. campus.
Unfortunately, while she was sitting on her moped behind a beverage distributing truck, the driver of the truck placed his truck in reverse without any knowledge as to who was directly behind him, in order to allow a bus to negotiate a turn. What happened next is absolutely unfathomable.
The victim saw the beverage truck in front of her rapidly reverse and was unable to take any evasive action to avoid the accident. She was thrown backward, with her moped being thrown to the ground. The truck continued its backward movement, running over her and crushing her, literally pinning her between the moped and the massive truck. She could hear people screaming frantically and pounding on the truck in order to get the driver to stop backing over her. To make matters even worse, the truck driver attempted to move his truck forward to get off of her, but this actually caused her to be dragged underneath the bottom of the truck along the pavement. Finally the truck stopped, with our victim being crushed beneath it. Frantically and without success, numerous witnesses and students attempted to lift the heavily loaded truck off of her.
While this was occurring, the victim recalls going in and out of consciousness and experiencing severe, excruciating pain and pressure throughout her body. She suffered serious burns to her lower back and buttocks as a result of the extended exposure to the hot pavement. As she laid terrified, fearful for her life, she was comforted by fellow students and passers by who saw this horrific event. She spent nearly 40 minutes trapped under the truck while Fire Rescue and good samaritans tried to help her. She was finally freed from the deadly grip of the beverage truck through the use of airbags to lift the truck after its load was removed.
She was transported to the hospital with multiple fractures and a severe laceration to her right leg. She spent two weeks in the hospital and required numerous surgeries and was forced to endure months of painful physical and occupational rehabilitation.
Subsequent to her release from the hospital, she returned home and followed up with numerous physicians for her catastrophic injuries and continued medical problems. She presented with continued complaints of pain to the right elbow, low back, knee and pelvis. She later underwent arthroscopic surgery on her right knee. Her lower back condition continued to deteriorate and became progressively worse to the point where her radiculopathy was causing the soles of her feet to go completely numb and was recommended surgery for that condition as well. Because of her schooling, she chose to hold off on any surgery to the lower back as long as possible.
The medical bills in this case totaled approximately $160,000.00, and of course, continued to mount.
The family of this young college student contacted Attorney Jason D. Weisser to represent them in this truck accident case. Mr. Weisser was successful in obtaining a multi-million dollar settlement in this case, and as part of the settlement of this matter, the defendant has agreed to pay for the remainder of this young student’s schooling.
Of course, this victim will have a long road to recovery after this horrific accident, but she is continuing to make great progress and planning for her future.
