Cohen Placitella & Roth Obtain Substantial Settlement in Auto Crashworthiness Lawsuit

By: Chris Placitella @ Nov 19, 2014

In this case, Joel Rosen who is nationally known for his successes in representing people harmed in defective auto cases obtained a substantial settlement in what is known as a “crashworthiness” case.  Our client  was a passenger in a cab over engine design  truck and trailer.  His co-employee was operating the truck on a state route in Southern Ohio.  The co-employee took his eyes off the road for a few seconds and did not observe a dump truck that had slowed down in front of him to make a right turn.  The operator steered quickly to the left to avoid the dump truck, but he did not react in time.  The front right corner of the  truck made contact with the left rear corner of the dump truck.  The entire right side of the truck cab peeled back exposing the left side of Mr. Newsome’s body to the rear corner of the dump truck.  Mr. Newsome lost his right leg below the knee and lost significant use of his right arm in the accident.

                We filed suit on behalf of Mr. Newsome in Ohio state court, asserting that the cab of the truck did not have sufficient structural strength to protect the occupants.  We took extensive discovery from the manufacturer concerning the design and manufacture of this truck and we were able to show that the cab was not adequately designed to protect its occupants from a foreseeable collision, particularly when that collision occurred off center and exerted forces on the front A pillar of the cab.  An occupant inside the cabin of a cab over engine designed truck is particularly vulnerable to those forces because of the design of the truck.  After much investigation, and by hiring some of the leading experts, we were able to obtain a substantial settlement from the truck company on behalf of our client.

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