Car Rental Company Pays $15.7 Million for Accident Caused by Lack of Maintenance
It seems that personal injury articles and blogs are often filled with gloom and doom. Unfortunately, that is the nature of what victims deal with when they've been seriously injured at the hands of another party who was negligent or careless. And it is the mission and the responsibility of accident lawyers to help victims pick up the pieces after a tragic accident. In one such case, a physician lost the ability to practice medicine-an outcome that could have been avoided by simple, routine car maintenance on the part of a car rental agency.
Car rental agencies are responsible for maintenance and safety of the cars they rent to customers, and when failure to follow maintenance procedures cause an accident, the rental agency is responsible for any injuries or damages. In this example, a Philadelphia woman lost more than the use of her arm-she lost her livelihood-and it could have been so easily prevented.
The woman rented a mini-van to transport friends and family to another state to attend a performance in which her daughter was playing a role. As the group was en route with the mom at the wheel, the van suddenly veered off the highway and rolled multiple times, plummeting down a ravine. While no fatalities resulted, all the passengers were injured, and the woman driving sustained severe, permanent injuries that would alter her life forever.
The injured driver was a physician, so by losing the use of her arm as a result of the accident, she also lost her ability to practice medicine. The cause of the accident? A ball joint failure, which the court determined would have been caught had regular maintenance been performed on the vehicle. The woman and her passengers were awarded $15.7 million in compensation for the negligence of the rental company, more than $11 million of which went to the driver.
While a personal injury attorney can help those who have been injured by negligence, there is no sum of money that can restore what a victim has lost. Remuneration may help soften the blow and assuage further losses, but the injustice may remain for a lifetime. In the case of the doctor, the time and expense she invested to become a physician were a loss in the sense of continuing with her practice, and the possibility for future earnings were needlessly cut down because of someone's failure to send a car to the mechanic for routine maintenance.
No sum of money can truly compensate for a loss of this magnitude, but there is some degree of justice served when an accident lawyer can secure a significant amount of compensation to make the future a bit easier financially. While all of the victims involved would rather have their pre-accident lives back, they did indicate that they were satisfied with the judgment.
Car rental agencies are responsible for maintenance and safety of the cars they rent to customers, and when failure to follow maintenance procedures cause an accident, the rental agency is responsible for any injuries or damages. In this example, a Philadelphia woman lost more than the use of her arm-she lost her livelihood-and it could have been so easily prevented.
The woman rented a mini-van to transport friends and family to another state to attend a performance in which her daughter was playing a role. As the group was en route with the mom at the wheel, the van suddenly veered off the highway and rolled multiple times, plummeting down a ravine. While no fatalities resulted, all the passengers were injured, and the woman driving sustained severe, permanent injuries that would alter her life forever.
The injured driver was a physician, so by losing the use of her arm as a result of the accident, she also lost her ability to practice medicine. The cause of the accident? A ball joint failure, which the court determined would have been caught had regular maintenance been performed on the vehicle. The woman and her passengers were awarded $15.7 million in compensation for the negligence of the rental company, more than $11 million of which went to the driver.
While a personal injury attorney can help those who have been injured by negligence, there is no sum of money that can restore what a victim has lost. Remuneration may help soften the blow and assuage further losses, but the injustice may remain for a lifetime. In the case of the doctor, the time and expense she invested to become a physician were a loss in the sense of continuing with her practice, and the possibility for future earnings were needlessly cut down because of someone's failure to send a car to the mechanic for routine maintenance.
No sum of money can truly compensate for a loss of this magnitude, but there is some degree of justice served when an accident lawyer can secure a significant amount of compensation to make the future a bit easier financially. While all of the victims involved would rather have their pre-accident lives back, they did indicate that they were satisfied with the judgment.
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