On Mound Road in Detroit, a routine drive turned into an unimaginable tragedy. Our 66-year-old client was lawfully proceeding through the intersection at Seven Mile when a massive commercial utility truck, hauling an attenuator trailer, blew through the red light and slammed into his car. The collision was so violent it caused a catastrophic injury: quadriplegia, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. For 19 months, he and his family endured unimaginable suffering before he tragically succumbed to his injuries, turning the case into a fight for justice for his wrongful death.
The utility company deployed its significant resources to deny responsibility. They blamed our client, claiming he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and using their own event data recorder (EDR) analysis to create a narrative that deflected fault. They even accused his family of spoliation of evidence.
We refused to let them rewrite history. Our firm invested heavily in the case, hiring a nationally-recognized accident reconstruction expert to dismantle their flawed EDR analysis. But our most critical discovery came from digging deeper: we unearthed a 911 call made by a bystander in the moments after the crash. In the call, the panicked witness clearly stated that the utility truck had run the red light—a “smoking gun” piece of evidence the defense had failed to disclose.
This confirmed the company’s absolute liability. Faced with our expert’s unshakeable findings and the explosive 911 call, the defense’s case crumbled. On the eve of trial, they agreed to an $8,000,000 settlement, providing compensation for the immense pain our client endured and the profound loss his family will forever face.