People usually have one of two opinions of single-vehicle motorcycle accidents. First, they think they must have been going to fast and not driving safely.
Second, people try to identify if there was something that caused the accident and that the driver couldn’t have prevented the crash. As a Virginia personal injury attorney, I tend to agree with the second way of thinking because after working with many motorcycle accident victims I know that no one wants to suffer the catastrophic injuries that occur from such an accident.
Unfortunately, these types of motorcycle accidents do occur, many times from no fault of the driver. Recently, a 50-year-old nurse was terribly injured in Portsmouth, Virginia (VA), while riding as a passenger on a motorcycle. What was the reason for the terrible motorcycle crash: A manhole cover that was raised nearly 3 inches above the surface of the street.
The road had recently been resurfaced, but the contractor forgot to repair one manhole cover. It was the negligence of the contractor, not the driver, that caused this terrible accident.
The poor nurse who for so long had taken care of others now was seriously injured herself in a motorcycle accident. She suffered a traumatic brain injury, a fractured sacrum (i.e., the tip of the spine that inserts into the pelvis), a fractured pelvis and two fractured ribs.
Clearly, this woman will have a painful and slow recovery. Thankfully, she hired experienced personal injury attorneys Amberly Hammer and O.L “Buzz” Gilbert. Our congratulations go out to the attorneys for winning their client a $3,817,500 settlement.
CT
About the Editors: The Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm, which has offices in Virginia (VA) and North Carolina (NC), edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard as pro bono services.
Rick Shapiro has practiced personal injury law for over 30 years in Virginia, North Carolina, and throughout the Southeastern United States. He is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (ABA Accredited) and has litigated injury cases throughout the eastern United States, including wrongful death, trucking, faulty products, railroad, and medical negligence claims. During his three-decade career, Shapiro has won client appeals before the VA Supreme Court, VA Court of Appeals, NC Supreme Court, SC Supreme Court, WV Supreme Court, TN Supreme Court, and three times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, underscoring Shapiro’s trial achievements. In addition, he and his law firm have won settlements/verdicts in excess of $100 million. His success in and out of the courtroom is a big reason why he was named 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” in railroad law in U.S. News & World Report's Best Lawyers publication (Norfolk, VA area), and he has been named a “Best Lawyer” and “Super Lawyer” by those peer-reviewed organizations for multiple years. Rick was also named a “Leader in the Law, Class of 2022” by Virginia Lawyers Weekly (total of 33 statewide honorees consisting of lawyers and judges across Virginia). And in September 2023, Rick was selected as a recipient of the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA) 2023 President’s Award. Although many nominations were submitted from across the country, Rick was just one of eight attorneys chosen by the prestigious National Board which certifies civil trial attorneys across the U.S. Rick was also recently named to Virginia Lawyers Weekly 2024 Virginia’s Go To Lawyers Medical Malpractice. The attorneys awarded this honor are nominated by their colleagues and chosen by a panel from the publication.
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