About 175 miles due north of Clermont, a Florida woman has been awarded nearly $13 million by a jury in a personal injury case.
The young woman was left with permanent brain damage as the result of the negligence of a trucker in a 2005 truck accident.
The woman was then a 17-year-old high school student driving home one night with her boyfriend, who was at the wheel. The car was proceeding down U.S. 1 when it was broadsided by a logging truck making a U-turn.
The driver was injured, but according to the News Leader, he has made a full recovery. The young woman’s life will never be the same, however: she sustained permanent brain damage, physical disabilities and short-term memory loss.
She reportedly requires 24-hour care and will never be able to hold a job.
The driver of the tractor trailer was uninjured in the wreck.
He and his employer were found by the jury to be negligent in the crash and were ordered to pay the woman and her mother approximately $13 million for pain and suffering, medical expenses and loss of income.
The attorney for the woman, similar to https://saputo.law/ said the award would help pay for her ongoing medical care. He also said he hoped it would serve to make logging truckers more careful.
He said the big rig in the crash had been poorly lit, making it invisible to the young driver of the passenger vehicle until it was too late to avoid a collision. In addition, the U-turn was itself a dangerous maneuver that should never have been attempted, he said.