Personal Injury Law

Brain Injury victim awarded $10.5 million in Drunk Driving Case

By Brian F. LaBovick, Esq.

A brain injured auto accident victim has $10.5 million reasons to be thankful after receiving a  large monetary award in court The sum of $10.5 million was awarded to brain injury victim M. Lopez and her family in a Fresno courtroom. This was one of  the largest monetary judgments ever assigned in Fresno County case of drunken driving.

June 9, 2007 was the day J. C. Ramirez, an employee of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Charities of Central California, chose to drive drunk. He was driving a dump truck used by the organization when he ran a stop sign at the corner of Church and Valentine. The truck, weighing 20,000 pounds, was traveling at 25 to 30 miles per hour when it struck and broadsided the brain injury victim.

Ramirez plead guilty, in an earlier court appearance, to charges of driving drunk. Ramirez was evidently drunk when he arrived at work on June 9th. He was allowed to operate the truck regardless of alcohol consumption.

A word of caution to employers:  Make sure your workers ar not driving drunk or operating machinery while intoxicated.  There is a good chance that the employer can and will be held liable. Take a close look at today's jury verdict.

The jury assigned the employer, DAV Charities the responsibility of $4 million in medical expenses covering past as well as future events. They awarded an additional $6.5 million to the family for pain and suffering equated with the injuries Lopez will live with for the rest of her life.

The brain injury victim in this case is a 57-year-old minimum wage earner . Since June 9th, she has been in hospitals and injured in the accident. She has been in hospitals and nursing homes. .

The size of the award is a first for the Fresno area. Large sums in cases of such severe brain injury have long been recognized as appropriate in other areas of California. Fresno juries have finally seen fit to follow the trend.

MSN posted a list of “The Drunkest Cities” in the U.S. with data taken from an article written by the editor's of Men's Health. Fresno, CA ranks as being one of the most drunkest cities at number 93. The MSN list ranks Denver, CO as the drunkest city at Number 100. Other cities listed as failing are Colorado Springs, Austin, Fargo, Anchorage and Omaha. Surprisingly, Miami, FL made the top ten list of least dangerously drunk cities.  Now it is important to mention that MSN used the following factors when making their list: annual death rates due to alcoholic liver disease, as well as who's headed there by regularly downing five or more drinks in a sitting (CDC)., drunk-driving arrests (FBI) and the percentage of fatal accidents involving intoxicated motorists (U.S. Department of Transportation).

Click here to find out more on  Brain Injury and Auto Accident Statistics regarding drunk driving. To read more from the Fresno Bee on this case, Click here.

Full post as published by LaBovick Injury Law Blog on October 28, 2008 (boomark / email).