In December 2001, at approximately 11:00 a.m. in Redmond, Washington, HS was operating her 1996 Toyota 4-Runner. She was stopped on Redmond Way at the intersection with Avondale Way behind a Chevy truck that was stopped for the red light. While stopped at the red light, HS was violently rear-ended by another AB, who was driving a red Mercedes. AB was not paying attention to the road or traffic signals.
There was no dispute that AB was negligent for colliding his vehicle into HS’s vehicle.
HS was injured in the accident. Objective findings revealed the following injuries:
- Tenderness (bilateral) at the level of C7 on the paracervical muscle;
- decreased range of motion secondary to pain; tenderness along the parathoracics bilaterally and near the vertebrae at the level of T6 to T12.
At the time of this collision HS was a 27-year old, self-employed stables owner in Woodinville, Washington. HS had no prior history of neck problems. She started her stables business in 1997. HS’s workweek varied from between 35-50 hours. Her duties included farm maintenance, feeding, riding and training horses to jump, stable cleaningand teaching. HS’s “normal” workday consisted of approximately eight hours a day of training horses, which requires lots of arm strength and especially involves lots of jumping from at least four feet or higher elevation with the horses.
HS was a very active and athletic young woman. Before this incident, she enjoyed a variety of physical activities, such as running and weight lifting (three to five times a week), skiing (once a week), and practicing yoga (once a week). Her true passion was taking care of the horses (including shopping for food and other supplies) and allowing others the chance to ride and enjoy them under her supervision. HS prided herself of being an excellent trainer, which kept her in very good physical shape. Despite her busy schedule, HS loved entertaining friends at least twice a week.
Because of the injuries sustained in this collision, HS was forced to reduce her hours and hired an assistant to jump and train the horses. She was advised to suspend yoga until her headaches had gone away. For some time after the collision, HS felt tired and had trouble carrying on conversations with friends and other horse professionals, which in turn affected her confidence and created needless embarrassing situations. For weeks after the collision, HS was nervous while driving, recalling the events surrounding the incident at issue.
To help her manage her claim with the American National Property and Casualty Company, HS hired Seattle car accident attorney Chris Davis.
To help her manage her claim with the American National Property and Casualty Company, HS hired Seattle car accident attorney Chris Davis.
A highly-regarded personal injury lawyer, Mr. Davis is the founder and principal attorney of Seattle-based Davis Law Group and has had substantial success negotiating for fair and reasonable financial compensation on behalf of his clients.