Truck Collides with Motorcycle in Lake Worth, Florida, Causing Severe Closed Head Injury
Closed head injuries can occur from automobile accidents, work related accidents, sports related accidents or falls. These injuries result from a trauma in which the brain is injured as a result of a blow to the head or a sudden, violent motion that causes the brain to knock against the skull.
A closed head injury differs from an open head injury, since no object actually penetrates the brain. A diffuse closed head injury can affect the cells and tissues throughout the brain or, if the damage occurs in one area, it is a focal closed head injury.
Individual circumstances dictate the degree and rate of recovery. Physicians state that good indicators of long term recovery would be the amount of time spent unconscious or in a coma, as well as how much normal functioning is recovered within the first month after the injury.
The victim in this Florida motorcycle accident was 22 years old and single. He was self-employed and worked as a tile setter, but had just passed his independent contractor’s examination and would have been qualified as a licensed general contractor. One of his passions was competitive motorcycle racing at a local track. In fact, the afternoon of the accident, he was test driving a custom built racing/competition type motorcycle, after having tuned it up earlier that afternoon.
While traveling southbound on a two lane road in Lake Worth, Florida, the victim encountered a slow moving pickup truck, also headed southbound. Apparently, the victim attempted to pass the pickup truck on the left when suddenly, without prior signal, the pickup truck attempted a left turn, right into the victim on the motorcycle.
The driver of the pickup truck had met a friend while drinking at a bar earlier that afternoon and had agreed to pick the man up for a party later that day. He had never been to this man’s home before and was searching for the street the man lived on. The other driver stated he never saw the victim until his helmeted head was inside the driver’s side of his truck’s cab.
This victim suffered a severe closed head injury and was comatose after the accident. In fact, his helmet had to be cut off of his head. The possibility of extensive brain damage and dysfunction was certainly a very strong possibility, and of course his parents were very distraught.
The parents of this victim sought the assistance of Attorney Richard D. Schuler in this matter. Mr. Schuler investigated all avenues regarding liability and coverage and set up a guardianship on behalf of the victim for the parents, since it was obvious that he would be mentally incompetent temporarily, if not indefinitely. Of course, the medical expenses in this case were extremely high, and the economic loss was astronomical.
It was a long and arduous recovery period for this victim, but fortunately Mr. Schuler was successful in recovering a settlement of hundreds of thousands of dollars for this victim and he is now leading a productive and fulfilling life.
