Recentlly I took the deposition of a woman who had been using her cell phone to talk while driving her car. She had left a bar in Bellevue after working all day. She admitted to drinking one glass of wine.
This woman then caused a car accident by rear-ending my client at 30 mph. Her car was totalled. When police arrived they also smelled alcohol on her breath. The officer administered a portable breath test which resulted in a BAC of 0.03. The legal limit in Washington is 0.08. The officer declined to arrest the woman, believing she was not “impaired.”
The woman she rear-ended is my client. I’ll call her Beth. Beth had been in a delivery van on her way to deliver some produce to a customer. Upon impact, Beth felt her neck “pop” which whipped her neck back and forth. She felt immediate pain at the scene. Beth followed up with a visit to the local emergency room. The ER doctor diagnosed a neck strain and prescribed some narcotics for pain.
Over the next 4 weeks, Beth’s cervical spine pain grew increasingly bad. She finally had an MRI which showed a large disc herniation impinging her spinal cord. Beth’s doctor immediately referred her to a neurosurgeon. That doctor recommended immediate surgery. The procedure consisted of an artificial disk replacement.
Beth still has ongoing pain in her neck and down her arms. Although the surgery was successful because it greatly diminished her symptoms, it did not cure them by any degree.
Beth recently received a CT scan which showed ongoing pathology at the C4-5 and C5-6 discs. Beth will likely need ongoing treatment and medication to manage her ongoing symptoms. Her medical bills now exceed $90,000, and this amount is likely to double within Beth’s lifetime.
Meanwhile, the woman who caused the accident by using her cell phone received an $85 ticket for inattentive driving. She paid the fine, and no action was taken against her license. The woman works as a paralegal for a local Bellevue attorney. The woman has gone on with her life as if the accident had never happened.
The woman’s insurance company, Encompass Insurance, has refused to pay out the policy limits of $250,000 to settle Beth’s claim. Instead, the Encompass lawyer has requested Beth’s medical records going back 20+ years in an attempt to find out if Beth had a pre-existing condition. Encompass argues that Beth’s visit to a chiropractor 15 months before the accident proves that the spine surgery was due to a prior condition, and not the car accident.
Beth has now incurred thousands of dollars in attorney fees and costs to force the woman’s insurance carrier to pay for her medical bills. Afterall she says, I’m not trying to get rich. I just want my medical bills paid so I don’t have to declare bankruptcy.
All Beth wants is a little justice. She reminds me repeatedly — I wasn’t using a cell phone while driving, the other woman was. Why am I now being treated like I’m trying to milk the system? My answer is the same answer I give to many of my clients: that’s the system, I explain. The insurance companies will always try to blame the victim or force you to incur enormous expense by filing a lawsuit to pay for damages that were caused by another driver’s negligence.
In this case, the driver’s negligence was using a cell phone while driving. Oh, and drinking some alcohol to boot. Don’t worry Beth, I will continue to fight for you. We will obtain justice.
If you had a little child, would you want that child to die because someone was in the other lane talking on their phone to their friend while on the freeway or while in downtown traffic? http://cellphonedeaths.yearsofsunflowers.com/
Driving while talking on a cell phone not only takes your concentration away from the road, it also takes your eyes away from the road. The problem is especially strong among teenager drivers. Investigation shows that the traffic accident caused by reckless mobile is increasing day by day. Because of these devastating statistics, laws are being passed across the United States limiting or completely prohibiting cell phone use while driving. Where such a law exists, car accident lawsuits claiming negligence based on cell phone use will certainly allege negligence for the cell phone use. Where specific cell phone laws do not exist, said use will still be addressed and proof of such cell phone use will still be used in determining liability. Accidents Direct