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Our 20 year old client was riding his motorcycle southbound on a rural state route in Northeast Ohio. A semi-tractor trailer was traveling northbound at a slow rate of speed and made a continuous left turn into a gas station. Our client applied his front and rear brakes and skidded into the passenger rear corner of the trailer sustaining multiple fractures and vascular injuries to his right hip and leg. Multiple surgeries to salvage the limb culminated in a “through knee” amputation. We assembled a team of experts to address the issues of fault and damages. An accident reconstructionist examined the motorcycle, the truck, the physical evidence at the scene and observations of witnesses to opine that there was very long site line with nothing to obstruct the truck driver’s view of the oncoming motorcycle. The orthopedic experts opined that the resulting fractures to our client’s pelvic ring, acetabulum and femoral head would result in traumatic arthritis to his hip joint requiring hip replacement and multiple hip revisions during his lifetime. A life care plan projected his lifetime future medical needs. Functional capacity evaluations limited his occupational pursuits to sedentary work and a vocational rehabilitation expert quantified his reduced earning capacity. The defense of the case centered around the likely speed of the motorcycle, thus eliminating his preferential right of way; a prosthetist who opined that advanced technologies would enable him to work and recreate at the same levels as before the injury; and a vocational rehabilitation expert who opined that there would be no impaired earning capacity. The case settled for the insurance policy limits with the trucking company contributing $250,000 of its own funds.
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