Articles Posted in Rear-End Crash

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On May 9, 2009, Christopher Billmann, 27, was stopped on Route 176 in Island Lake, Ill., when his car was rear-ended by the defendant Brian Freeman in what was described as a violent impact. Billmann sustained a lumbosacral sprain, soft tissue injuries and a bulging disc. Billmann claimed to have received $16,181 in medical bills, which were unpaid.

The defendant Freeman admitted negligence but disputed the nature and extent of Billmann’s alleged injuries. Billmann’s treating physicians opined that Billmann suffered a lumbosacral sprain that turned chronic. Another doctor, an orthopedic surgeon, testified that Billmann’s bulging disc was due to the trauma, since Billmann had no prior symptoms. He required an MRI and an injection for the pain derived from the bulging disc.

The defendant Freeman brought his own expert orthopedic surgeon to the jury trial who offered the opinion that Billmann suffered a self-limiting lumbosacral sprain, which required only six to eight visits to a chiropractor or physical therapist and that all other treatment was unnecessary and unreasonable.

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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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On Nov. 10, 2010, William Burke, an off-duty Chicago police detective, was driving eastbound on Foster Avenue in Harwood Heights, Ill., when his car rear-ended the car driven by defendant Marie Halling and pushed it into the rear of the plaintiff’s Jolanta Grzeda’s vehicle.

Grzeda was taken from the scene by ambulance to treat her injuries. She sustained cervical and lumbar strain/sprains with a disc herniation revealed on MRI films. She claimed $16,301 in medical expenses and $7,140 for lost time from her job for four months as a cleaning woman.

Burke disputed the nature and extent of Grzeda’s injuries and damages while Halling denied liability and contested damages.

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Theodus Williams was driving a fully loaded dump truck owned by Valvano Construction when he lost control of the vehicle on a two-lane highway. This caused a crash with another car, which in turn rear-ended an SUV in which Holly Ann Cuchwara was riding. After being rear-ended, the SUV hit a utility pole before it came to a stop. Cuchwara, 38, suffered multiple injuries, including a fractured spine, closed-head injury, a broken ankle and a corneal abrasion. Cuchwara now suffers from headaches, chronic pain and fatigue.

Cuchwara and her husband sued Williams, claiming that he was negligent in his driving. The lawsuit also claimed that Valvano Construction and its corporate management had chosen not to maintain and inspect the dump truck that Williams was driving. The Cuchwaras claimed that the dump truck was not roadworthy due to the defective steering system and faulty brakes. Cuchwara did not claim lost income or past medical expenses.

After a jury trial, the jurors entered a verdict of $10.1 million and a finding that Williams was 30% responsible for Cuchwara’s injuries. The verdict would be paid by those defendants according to the jury’s percentage splits. The Cuchwara family was represented by attorneys Joseph A. Quinn, Jr. and Michael A. Lombardo III.

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On May 11, 2009, Manuel Banuelos was driving a dump truck through a construction zone on northbound Interstate 94 in Lake County, Ill., when he attempted to turn into a construction site a quarter-mile north of Illinois Route 176. At that point, Banuelos was rear-ended by a semi-tractor-trailer driven by the defendant Dezell Kelley, pushing Banuelos’ truck into a ditch causing his serious injuries.

Banuelos claimed that he had slowed down in advance of his turn, that his flashers were engaged and signs were present warning drivers of a flagger ahead and the trucks were entering and exiting this highway.

Two witnesses confirmed that Banuelos had slowed and his flashers were on. Banuelos was 39 years old at the time of the crash. He sustained a herniated L5-S1 disc that required a discectomy and fusion, a torn meniscus in his right knee that required arthroscopic surgery and a herniated C5-6 disc requiring treatment and future fusion surgery, all leaving him unable to return to work as a truck driver.

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On Oct. 2, 2009, the car driven by defendant Monica Carroll, a 57-year-old attorney, rear-ended James Anderson’s car on northbound Illinois Interstate 94 between Lake Cook Road and Route 22.  Anderson was a 66-year-old retiree who alleged that the impact caused neck pain or accelerated a degenerative condition in his cervical spine, which required physical therapy, steroid injections and radiofrequency ablations to alleviate his pain.

Radiofrequency ablation is utilized to reduce pain. An electrical current produced by a radio wave is used to warm up the area of pain usually a nerve tissue, which in many cases leads to decreasing the pain signals from that specific area.

Anderson was told by his treating physician that he would require fusion surgery for a C4-5 disc herniation and degenerative cervical spine with the possibility of a 3-level fusion procedure needed at C4-7. However, Anderson has not undergone the surgery. At trial, Anderson produced past medical expenses of $55,000 although $125,000 for future surgery costs was barred by the court.

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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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On May 20, 2010, the plaintiff, Bernard Fay, 47, was stopped at a red light at an intersection in Skokie, Ill. Fay was waiting to make a right turn on red and pulled forward to see if traffic was clear before proceeding. However, the defendant, Elisa All, thought that Fay had turned and her car rear-ended his car.

Fay sustained a nondisplaced fracture of the coronoid process in his left jaw, which was not operated on, two fractured molars requiring a crown on one and a filling for the other, neck pain that required chiropractic care for one year and bulging discs at C5-C6 and C6-C7 with internal disc disruption requiring a future 2-level fusion. Fay lost time from his job as a stationary engineer.

The defendant, All, admitted liability but argued that Fay did not need the future neck surgery and that his disc pain was a diagnosis by exclusion based solely on subjective complaints. She also maintained that Fay told his chiropractor in June 2011 that he was 100% improved.

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On June 28, 2010, Dariusz Bosek was stopped at a red light in the northbound lane of Randall Road at Mill Street in Batavia, Ill. His vehicle was then rear-ended by a car driven by the defendant, Hildegard Maas. Bosek, 44, was injured in the crash; he sustained a left elbow injury, a painful tendon injury that required physical therapy, injections and eventually surgery in November 2011. Bosek made a full recovery after the surgery and has no permanent problems now. His medical bills totaled $38,620. He did not have any lost time from work as a delivery driver.

The 89-year-old defendant, Hildegard Maas, had been stopped behind Bosek but reported that she sneezed, which caused her foot to slip off the brake pedal. Maas was not present for the jury trial because she was in poor health and residing in a Colorado nursing home.

The defense admitted negligence at trial, but contested the extent of the plaintiff’s injury pointing to the minimal damage to the vehicles and a 7-month treatment gap from November 2010 to June 2011 in which Bosek was treated.

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On Oct. 29, 2008, Jonas Zigmantas was driving a flatbed truck for trucking company A.V., Inc. The truck was traveling northbound on Illinois Interstate 294 around 9:30 p.m. Zigmantas stopped his truck because he was involved in a minor property damage crash with a Honda Accord, which was driven by Michael Hawkins, near mile marker 2.

The Accord had sideswiped Zigmantas’s truck. Instead of pulling the flatbed semi-trailer over to the shoulder of the four-lane highway, Zigmantas stopped in the third lane of traffic, got out of his cab to check damage to his truck, walked to the shoulder to see if Hawkins was injured and told him to call the police.

After some time out of the truck, Zigmantas got back in, but he did not move the truck to the side of the road or put out any reflective hazard warning triangles or flares behind his parked flatbed trailer.

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