Confidential Settlement After Deadly Ambulance Accident

The Champion Firm Wins Settlement for Client’s Grieving Family After Deadly Ambulance Accident

The surviving children of an 86-year-old woman hired The Champion Firm on behalf of their mother after she was involved in a motor vehicle accident while riding in the back of an ambulance. The accident occurred when the ambulance driver failed to completely stop for a red light. Though the lights and sirens were on, and the ambulance did slow down, it did not fully stop, and was subsequently T-boned by another vehicle proceeding through the intersection. The collision caused the ambulance to flip on its side, causing major injuries to the client.

At the time of the accident, the client had been on the way to the hospital for an abnormally high heart rate. After the accident, she would need treatment for severe fractures to her femur, hip, pelvis, fibula, sacrum, and ribs. Despite receiving treatment for her injuries and undergoing surgery to repair the fractures, she died two days after the wreck.

Liability and causation presented significant challenges in this case. To help the client’s children get the full compensation that they were owed, The Champion Firm needed to prove that the ambulance driver was at fault and that the accident caused the client’s death.

At the time of the accident, the client was being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance with lights and sirens activated. Though the driver did not stop at the intersection for the red light, he did slow down. The Champion Firm team was concerned that the ambulance company would attempt to blame the other driver for failing to yield to the ambulance in the intersection. This could have at least partially absolved the ambulance company of liability, potentially lessening the compensation owed to the client’s family.

To prove liability and prevent the ambulance company from successfully making this claim, the firm hired an accident reconstructionist. The reconstructionist inspected the scene of the wreck and the vehicles involved. They then provided The Champion Firm team with the evidence necessary to demonstrate that the ambulance driver was at fault for the accident.

Based on the evidence from The Champion Firm’s diligent investigation, the ambulance company accepted liability for the accident.

Proving that the ambulance company was liable for the accident was only half of the equation, though. The Champion Firm also needed to prove that the accident was the cause of the client’s death.

The client was being transported to the hospital for an abnormally high heart rate when the accident occurred. Thus, The Champion Firm team knew that the ambulance company might claim that the wreck did not kill the client, or that the client had a short life expectancy due to her age and poor health conditions. With this in mind, the firm hired a private coroner to perform an autopsy on the client shortly after her death. From evidence in the autopsy, the coroner concluded that the wreck had, in fact, caused her death.

Through meticulous work demonstrating liability and causation, the team at The Champion Firm was able to settle the case for a confidential amount without the need to file a lawsuit.