The SUV that the governor was in was run into by another vehicle who was trying to avoid a collision. Unfortunately, it appears the governor was not wearing his seat belt and his vehicle may have been speeding. This automobile accident involving an important government official puts the spotlight on how all of us are vulnerable to being severely hurt on the road.
The governor is going to have leg surgery as a result of this car crash. He has been under heavy sedation and on a ventilator in the hospital for days since the accident. The governor’s femur bone was broken in two places but he also suffered a broken sternum, 12 broken ribs, a head cut, and a fracture of one of his vertebrae. Although the injuries were not considered life threatening, Corzine’s injuries are obviously severe. He was flown by helicopter after the crash to the hospital.
Another interesting aspect of this news item was that the air bags on the governor’s vehicle may not have deployed properly. There is a whole area of litigation about air bag failure. Sometimes air bags fail because they were not properly designed. It is not clear to me in reading the news piece whether the failure of the air bag to deploy worsened the injuries in this crash. Much of my information for this blog article is based upon the Virginian Pilot newspaper (see www.pilotonline.com).
Obviously, when a governor has serious broken bones and other injuries in a car wreck, it is news. It makes me think about all those people who suffer equally severe injuries each day on Virginia and the nation’s roads whose accidents and injuries we don’t hear about.
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.
Comments for this article are closed.