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A 47-year-old Somerset, New Jersey motorcyclist was injured in an intersection accident when he collided with an ambulance, which had its lights and sirens activated, on its way to a New Jersey Hospital. Ironically, the ambulance was transporting another injured motorcyclist from an unrelated accident to the New Brunswick hospital. The ambulance company’s insurance carrier paid $4.5 million dollars to the motorcyclist after Davis, Saperstein & Salomon Partners Garry R. Salomon and Adam B. Lederman, assisted by Senior Associate Manuel B. Sameiro- proved that the ambulance driver was negligent. Upon entering the intersection of Franklin Boulevard and Highland Avenue in Franklin, New Jersey, the ambulance driver failed to take proper safety precautions. The impact threw Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, P.C.’s client from his motorcycle causing multiple facial bone fractures, fractures to his mandible (jaw), a broken left elbow fracture, back injuries to the articular process of his vertebrae, a C5-C6 herniated disc, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, loss of consciousness and a mild traumatic brain injury secondary to concussion. He underwent surgery on 5 separate occasions.
The defendant, an experienced ambulance driver, claimed that although he had a red light, he took reasonable precautions by stopping, as required by the law, before entering the intersection. The defendant also gave a statement to his insurance carrier saying that he saw the biker about a block away. Even though the ambulance stopped at the intersection, the driver was negligent because he assumed that the motorcyclist would yield the right of way to the ambulance. As experts in motorcycle accident law, the team of lawyers at Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, P.C. hired an ambulance operations expert and an accident reconstruction expert who concluded the ambulance driver failed to meet the standards required by law when entering an active intersection against a red light.
The investigating Franklin Township, New Jersey police officers determined that the plaintiff was proceeding within the 25-mph speed limit and that the motorcyclist’s view was obstructed by several utility poles, traffic signals, trees, bushes, shrubs, fences, and cars lawfully parked in their driveways. While inadmissible for purposes of trial, the official police report also stated that the motorcyclist, on his Harley Davidson motorcycle, likely could not hear the siren due to the noise of the motorcycle and the direction of the ambulance.
Despite wearing a helmet and full motorcycle safety gear, the motorcycle collision also caused accident-related partial hearing loss, accident-related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and a head injury resulting in mild cognitive short-term memory deficits. Although he sustained the traumatic brain injury, the motorcycle rider made a relatively good recovery but continues to experience short-term memory loss and mood alteration.
“The 4.5-million-dollar settlement is one of the largest motorcycle accident settlements in the firm’s history,“ said Garry R. Salomon, a founding partner of Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, P.C. He went on to explain that “when the client first called, I was unsure about being able to prove negligence on the part of the ambulance driver, but my client was extremely honest and credible and I believed in him all along. I wish him and his family well. “
The full identity of the parties to this motorcycle accident settlement is subject to a qualified confidentiality agreement. The results of this settlement were reported in Jury Verdict Review as one of the top 10 settlements of 2020 in the entire Northeast.
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