Recently, Keith Belt of Belt, Bruner, & Barnett P.C. received a $2,000,000 jury verdict in Coffee County, Alabama for his client who was injured in a serious motorcycle accident when his motorcycle struck a commercial truck that pulled out in front of him. The trial lasted for five days and involved several witnesses and numerous photographs and documentary evidence. The accident at issue, in this case, occurred at approximately 1:15 p.m. on January 12, 2007, on Alabama Highway 189 (also known as the Kinston Highway).
The truck involved in the collision was owned by the Howell Grassing Corporation. Prior to the accident, the truck driver had parked his truck on the opposite side of the roadway and gotten out to survey how he was going to drive his truck into a hay field. After the truck driver got back into his truck, he backed up and then drove across the oncoming lane as he attempted to maneuver his truck and trailer into the field. As he was crossing the southbound lanes, our client was just exiting a curve on his motorcycle. Unfortunately, our client did not have adequate time or distance to react and an impact occurred sending our client tumbling off of the roadway.
The truck driver had the whole road blocked and our client did not have an out. As a result of the accident, our client suffered a broken pelvis, broken ribs, and lacerations to several internal organs. The trucking company defended the case by claiming that our client was speeding. The jury obviously disagreed with this erroneous contention by the Defendant and found for our client and assessed $2,000,000 in purely compensatory damages. Our client was very deserving of this award and we believe that the jury did an excellent job of evaluating all of the evidence and testimony.
