Mother and Son are Seriously Injured in Two Car Crash
According to the Florida Department of Highway and Motor Vehicle Safety, in the year 2007, there were approximately 256,206 traffic crashes on Florida’s roadways. Resulting from these crashes were approximately 212,149 injuries and a reported 3,221 traffic fatalities.
These statistics don’t really mean much until you consider the personal stories contained in each of these accidents.
Our clients in this Florida automobile accident case were a 52 year old mother and her 17 year old son. In this instance, the son was driving and the mother was the front seat passenger. Our clients were traveling eastbound on Northlake Boulevard when another driver in a pick-up truck failed to stop and yield the right of way while traveling northbound on an intersecting roadway. The other vehicle entered the intersection and plowed into the passenger side of our clients’ vehicle. The impact was so severe it pushed the victims’ vehicle across the westbound lanes of traffic and onto the shoulder of Northlake Boulevard approximately 100 feet northeast of the initial impact. The resulting damage to the victims’ vehicle was so great that it was ultimately deemed a total loss.
The young son who was the driver was transported via ambulance to the emergency room at St. Mary’s Hospital with an open laceration to his scalp. This wound required several metallic staples to close and has left a permanent and unsightly scar on his head. His mother unfortunately sustained a horrific open compound fracture to her right arm that her son was forced to witness. As to be expected, this has left a negative and lasting impression on the young man.
The mother was transported to the emergency room at St. Mary’s Hospital via Trauma Hawk. She sustained severe injuries to her right arm which included a combined Montegia fracture, a dislocation of the elbow, and a mid-shaft radius and ulna fracture. Upon her arrival at the emergency room she was evaluated and immediately transferred to the operating room where she underwent extensive surgical procedures.
This family sought the assistance of Attorney Richard D. Schuler, who did an in depth investigation into the cause of this accident and filed suit against the driver of the pick-up truck and, since he was working at the time of this accident, he also sued his employer, one of the sugar corporations in Palm Beach County, Florida.
Unfortunately, the mother in this case sustained a permanent injury and permanent dysfunction as a result of this accident. Her treating orthopedic surgeon assigned a 33% permanent impairment to the body as a whole. According to her physician, she continues to suffer from “severe loss of rotation at the elbow and wrist with almost no functional supination and significant loss of extension at the elbow.” Further, her physician stated that she has suffered one of the most severe fracture dislocations and combined forearm
fractures that one can have. In addition to the aforementioned problems, she is left with severe permanent scaring to her right forearm due to the open fractures and invasive surgical procedures.
Mr. Schuler was successful in settling this case without the necessity of a trial for several hundred thousand dollars for this mother and son.
