Articles Posted in Head-On Crash

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On Aug. 6, 2011, the car driven by Mi Suk Park rear-ended Patricia LaBeck’s car on Rand Road in Deer Park, Ill. The great force of the crash caused the Park airbags to deploy, caused LaBeck’s sunglasses to come off and prompted LaBeck’s daughter’s shoes and headband to come off.

LaBeck was a 40-year-old homemaker at the time. She was taken by ambulance to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, Ill., where she was diagnosed with a concussion and lumbar strain/sprain.

She returned to the emergency room two days after the crash for severe dizziness and headaches. She had feared that she had suffered a more severe head injury, but the concussion diagnosis was confirmed.

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Jeremy Droege and his five family members, including his wife, his mother, and three children, ages 7, 5 and 3, were passengers in a car that was struck head-on by a truck driven by James Benson for J.B. Hunt Transport on Oct. 2, 2010. The Droege family was in a car traveling northbound on Route 29 in Sparland, Marshall County, Ill., when Benson’s southbound truck tractor, without an attached trailer, crossed the center line into the northbound lane and crashed head-on with Droege’s van near North Street.

Stephanie Droege, 32 and the wife of Jeremy, was the most seriously injured and remained hospitalized for 23 hours, while the other five plaintiffs were treated in the emergency room and released. She suffered cervical fractures at C-6 and C-7 with a closed head injury causing traumatic brain injury, leaving her at increased risk of epilepsy.

Jeremy Droege, 32, was the driver. He suffered a knee bone contusion and soft tissue neck and back injuries. His mother, Betty, 75, also suffered injuries. The three children, ages 7, 5 and 3, had only emergency room care but experienced emotional distress and nightmares after the crash.

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On Jan. 27, 2011, the defendant, 55-year-old Wayne Mallek, was driving eastbound on Signal Hill Road in North Barrington, Ill., during snowy weather. As Mallek went down a steep hill approaching a stop sign at Route 59, he realized he was not going to be able to stop in time due to the accumulation of packed snow on the road. Traffic traveling on Route 59 did not have any stop signs or traffic control devices at that intersection.

Mallek applied his brake hard, pumped the brakes and then swerved sharply to the right but his vehicle did not slow down or respond until he reached the intersection due to the steep decline.

As a result of that maneuver, Mallek slightly sideswiped a southbound box truck driven by the defendant Santiago Nava who was employed by Randolph Packing. Nava was in the scope of his employment at the time.

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On Feb. 27, 2008, Michelle Eells, 39, was driving eastbound on Route 38 toward DeKalb, Ill., when an oncoming westbound pickup truck driven by the defendant, Dustin Grinstead, crossed the centerline near Kishwaukee Community College and crashed into her vehicle. The eastbound vehicle driven by Wayne Domin, who was working for Sysco, was driving behind Eells and subsequently rear-ended Eells’s car following the first impact between Eells and Grinstead.

Eells claimed that she injured her neck, back and right arm and hand, which resulted in three surgeries. She had an excision of ganglion cyst on the right hand/wrist and injection for DeQuervain’s tenosynovitis, right elbow surgical release of radial nerve entrapment and radial tunnel syndrome and cervical fusion, which occurred in September 2010. Eells also claimed that she can no longer work as a dental hygienist and is currently unemployed. She had claimed medical bills amounting to $167,582. She also claimed lost time from work at $111,691 and future lost time.

Eells sought to hold the defendants Grinstead and Domin/Sysco 50% each at fault. Grinstead had an automobile insurance policy limit of $100,000. According to the law, if Domin/Sysco was found at least 25% at fault they would be jointly liable for all of the damages.

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