Plaintiff was stopped for traffic in Interstate 95 in the city of Las Vegas. Defendant was employed by and operating a tanker truck owned by Coastal. Defendant's truck crashed into the plaintiff's vehicle from the rear. Defendant was inattentive and violated the basic speed law. In addition, the brakes on defendants' trailer were out of adjustment resulting in a 40% deficiency in braking capacity. Defendants admitted liability, but disputed the nature and extent of the plaintiff's injuries and damages. The plaintiff sustained a herniated disc at the L5-S1 level which required a discectomy. Plaintiff had residual pain and is a candidate for fusion surgery.

Plaintiff demanded: $2,300,000.00 which was later reduced to a $1,000,000.00 policy limit demand

Defendant offered: $350,000.00

COMMENTS: Plaintiff's counsel was misled by defense counsel to believe that there was only one insurance policy covering this incident. On the second day of trial, defense counsel notified plaintiff's counsel that there was an excess policy.

The plaintiff, as 22 year old student, was a passenger in a Honda Civic which experienced a front passenger side flat tire. In response, the driver of the Honda had pulled so far off the freeway, half of the vehicle was straddling the asphalt shoulder and the other half was in the gravel completely off the paved shoulder surface. The emergency flashers were on and the trunk lid open. After a night of drinking with friends, defendant drove his Ford F350 truck to his employer's yard in Brisbane, California, for the purpose of meeting a subordinate employee and to hitch his Ford 350 truck to a Toman trailer owned by his employer. After hitching the trailer, he drove to the job site in Santa Cruz with the subordinate employee following in a second vehicle on I-280.

At a speed of approximately 60 mph, defendant went off the freeway and smashed into the rear of the Honda which had been stopped on the side of the freeway for approximately 15 minutes. The forces of the truck striking the small Honda at this speed demolished the car in which the plaintiff was a rear seat passenger. The plaintiff was later pronounced dead at the scene.

In a later criminal proceeding, the defendant pled guilty to felony vehicular manslaughter and felony driving under the influence causing great bodily injury. He was sentenced to a term of years in a California State Penitentiary.

Defendant employer claimed and continued to contend that the defendant driver was an independent contractor, despite the fact that during discovery proceedings in litigation, there was overwhelming evidence that the driver was an employee of the defendant company at the time of the subject collision and was acting in the course and scope of said employment.

The plaintiff was walking across B Street, at the intersection of Third Street, in the City of Hayward, in a legally marked crosswalk. As she continued walking, the defendant, Ms Shirley Lee, who was driving her 1991 Mazda vehicle in an easterly direction on B Street, entered the subject intersection and collided into the plaintiff.

Plaintiff's head struck the defendant's windshield after which plaintiff's body was hurled approximately 12 feet east of the crosswalk and was rendered unconscious. The defendant admitted to the investigating officer that she did not see the plaintiff prior to the impact. She further indicated that she entered the intersection at a speed of 18 mph and continued to accelerate until the collision occurred.

Plaintiff's injuries include a skull fracture with paresthesia of the left upper extremity, a left tibial plateau fracture.

This matter arises from an automobile collision that occurred in the City of Cupertino, State of California. The collision occurred when Schindler Elevator Corporation's employee, who was driving northbound on I-280, failed to timely observe slowing/stopped traffic ahead of him, with the result that he crashed into the rear end of the plaintiff's vehicle with such force that her vehicle was propelled forward into a stationary vehicle in front of her resulting in a further chain reaction collision involving three additional vehicles.

The plaintiff, who was 35 years of age at the time of the collision, sustained a cervical disk herniation at the C6-7 level and an incisional hernia. She underwent three surgical procedures: 1) an anterior cervical discectomy at C6-7, anterior cervical foraminotomy at C6-7 bilaterally, anterior fusion using human allograft struts and demineralized home matrix gel, C6-7, and anterior fusion, C6-C7, using Synthes anterior cervical plates and screws; 2) an abdominal ventral hernia repair; and a second abdominal ventral hernia repair when the initial repair failed.

This collision occurred when the left rear tire of the Chevrolet truck that was being towed by Defendant's towing company disengaged from the truck and collided into a vehicle that was traveling northbound on I-5 in the city of Red Bluff. The collision caused the subject vehicle to lose control over the center median, overturn and slide directly into a vehicle that was being driven by the plaintiff on southbound on I-5.

Plaintiff sustained a severe head injury, with fractures and hemorrhaging, facial fractures, a splenic injury, a fractured rib and lung injury.