Trucking & Automobile Accidents
The firm has a long history of handling cases with deaths and serious injuries involving automobile or trucking wrecks. We have handled many cases involving drunk drivers, negligent truckers and other automotive negligence.
Trucking and automotive cases can include complicated issues involving the amount of insurance available. The firm has special experience in maximizing the amount of recovery available to those injured by the negligence of others. The legal publication Lawyers Weekly recently reported on a trucking negligence case that David F. Kirby and Bill Bystrynski tried in which they secured a multi-million dollar verdict for the plaintiff, then successfully sued the insurance company to recover all of its insurance after the insurance company denied it had coverage for the wreck.
Here are some of the trucking and automobile negligence cases we have handled. N.C. Bar Rules prohibit reporting the amount of settlement or verdict on our website.
- Man rendered quadriplegic after accident
- College student hit by milk truck, receives brain injury
- Brake drum explodes, killing passing motorist
- Couple parked killed by tractor-trailer
- Automobile accident results in seven-figure verdict
- Former judge killed by truck
- Pediatrician suffers brain injury when truck runs red light
- Drunk driver kills wife and mother
- Boy orphaned after crash with police car kills both parents
- Heroic ambulance driver killed while saving partner from wreck
- Drunk driver kills woman, injures husband
- Settlement Reached in Death of Two
Drunk driver kills woman, injures husband
A woman driving with her husband to pick up airline tickets for a wedding anniversary trip was struck by a vehicle driven by a drunken driver who ran a stop sign. The woman was killed and her husband was injured. The case was complicated by a variety of insurance issues, and a separate action was filed over the insurance policies at issue. The case settled on the eve of trial. Back to Top.
Heroic ambulance driver killed trying to save partner from truck wreck
A 24-year-old ambulance driver and long-time rescue worker stopped at the site of a collision on Interstate 40 involving a tractor-trailer and two automobiles. The driver of the tractor-trailer parked his truck on a hill and left the engine running. As the truck driver came up to see what had happened, the tractor-trailer began to roll down the hill toward the ambulance. The driver of the ambulance rushed to his vehicle to try to save his partner, who was inside. As he did so, he was struck, and the tractor-trailer crushed his head. A North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles investigation concluded that there was nothing mechanically wrong with the truck brakes, and the driver simply forgot to set them. The ambulance driver was posthumously awarded the Governor’s Award for Bravery and Heroism and his name was inscribed on the National Memorial for Fallen Officers. The case settled. Back to Top
Boy orphaned after crash with police car kills both parents
A two-year-old boy was left orphaned when a police officer made an illegal U-turn on a highway, heading the wrong way, and struck the car driven by the boy’s parents. The boy’s father, a post doctoral medical researcher from the University of North Carolina, lived for three days before dying. The child, who was in the back seat of the car when it was struck, was unharmed. The police officer had been hired despite having 7 traffic convictions, and the accident was the officer’s fifth in the past few years. The case settled. The case made news in a national legal publication because the city of Durham had absolute immunity, meaning it cannot be sued, yet the firm secured a multi-million dollar settlement. Back to Top
Drunk driver kills wife and mother
A 41-year-old wife and mother was killed when the defendant lost control of the truck and trailer he was driving and the trailer swung into the woman’s lane, hitting her car head-on. The defendant admitted he drank 6-8 beers while helping a friend move the day of the wreck. The case settled on the eve of trial. Back to Top
Pediatrician suffers brain injury when truck runs red light
A 45-year-old pediatrician who was the mother of two was injured when her car was struck by a tractor-trailer that allegedly ran a red light. She suffered a severe head injury and neurological damage, becoming totally and permanently disabled. The case contained significant issues regarding insurance, and was complicated by the fact that the trucking company filed for bankruptcy shortly after suit was filed. The case was settled. Back to Top
Former judge killed by truck
A 43-year-old attorney and former judge was killed and his two daughters were injured when their station wagon was struck on the drive’s side door by a truck that ran a red light. One of his daughters suffered two broken arms, a skull fracture and head lacerations while the other suffered abdominal and leg trauma. The attorney died three days after the accident. The case settled. Back to Top
Automobile accident results in seven-figure verdict
A woman who stopped at a traffic light was struck from behind by a tow truck that was in the process of repossessing a car in Wake County. She suffered a substantial brain injury and partial paralysis in her left arm. A judge awarded a multi-million dollar verdict. A separate suit had to be filed over the insurance coverage. The insurance company eventually paid all of its coverage. Back to Top
Couple parked killed by tractor-trailer
A couple was returning home to Raleigh on a trip from Chicago when the husband parked in the breakdown lane. A tractor-trailer rear ended them as they were parked, killing the wife and injuring the husband. The case was settled before trial. Back to Top
Brake drum explodes, killing passing motorist
A 60-year-old woman was killed when a brake drum on the rear wheel of a passing tractor-trailer exploded, and a large piece flew through her windshield, killing her. Plaintiffs’ expert witnesses, a brake drum expert and two mechanics, testified that the brake drum was worn beyond safety limits and contained severe heat cracks, problems indicating that a drum should be removed for fear of explosion. The brake drum involved in the wreck had been examined in the shop of the defendant trucking company nine days before the wreck. Discovery revealed that at the time of the wreck, defendants’ mechanics did not measure the wear on brake drums and did not use the recommendations of brake drum manufacturers in deciding whether to remove drums. Back to Top
College student hit by milk truck, receives brain injury
A 20-year-old college student received severe brain injuries when a milk truck turned in front of him as he drove on a rural two-lane road. Before the wreck, plaintiff had hoped to return to N.C. State to be the first member of his family to graduate from college. His head injury has not allowed him to do that due to impairment of his cognitive function. The young man has suffered from seizures as a result of his brain injury. The case settled. Back to Top
Man rendered quadriplegic after accident
A 40 year-old man was being transported to a job site in Onslow County along with 13 other workers in a van owned by their employer when a woman ran a stop sign hitting the van and causing it to overturn. Plaintiff suffered a spinal fracture in the wreck and was rendered a quadriplegic. The case settled shortly before trial. Back to Top
Settlement Reached in Death of Two
David Kirby and Bill Bystrynski concluded a case in which two natives of India were killed in a single car accident, and two others were injured. The accident occurred in South Carolina, where the car ran off the road, striking a tree. The defendants claimed a mechanical problem with the vehicle caused the crash.
The firm’s work included making settlement brochure videos. Relatives outside the country were interviewed on tape, and the lives of the two people who were killed were depicted, along with the injuries to those who survived. Two passengers in the vehicle received extensive injuries: an 8-year-old boy suffered a broken pelvis and a shattered leg, and his mother had a broken pelvis, a broken leg and 10 rib fractures, among other injuries.
The case was unusual in that the victims were from India and Georgia, the accident occurred in South Carolina, and the defendants were from North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Delaware. The case resulted in a multi-million dollar settlement. Back to Top
Brain injury case settles
A brilliant student from China who received a severe brain injury when the car in which he was a passenger was struck by a dump truck has received a settlement in his case. The student, a graduate student at N.C. State University, was a passenger in a car driven by his fellow student from China. They were at a stop sign when the car pulled out onto the dominant highway. They were struck at the passenger’s side door by a dump truck belonging to a landscaping company. The student was life flighted to UNC Hospitals, where he was in a coma. He remained in a vegetative state for more than three months. He suffered severe brain damage, and he has only limited use of all of his limbs.
Plaintiff contended that the dump truck was speeding, and that the driver ignored a warning sign that was flashing “Vehicle Entering When Flashing” as the dump truck approached the crest of the hill, beyond which the blind intersection was located. The recommended safe speed for the hill was 35 mph, with a 45 mph speed limit.
The landscaping company claimed that the driver of the car in which the student was riding ran the stop sign. The case was tried and resulted in a hung jury, but with most jurors favoring the plaintiff. After the hung jury, the case settled for payment more than 20 times more than the highest offer before trial. Back to Top
