On February 28, 2017, an Ocala, Florida, jury awarded a family $52 million for injuries and damages resulting from a 2013 car crash. Yolanda Aldana, Leyvier Herrera, Kevin Martinez, Anthony Martinez, Alejandro Aldana and Kenneth Herrera were awarded a total of $51,813,591 in their lawsuit against Nathan Pyles.
In December of 2013, Yolanda Aldana and her four children were sitting at a red light in Ocala, when a 2012 black BMW driven by Nathan Pyles slammed into them without even braking. Pyles was cited for careless driving with serious bodily injury. Pyles told state troopers that he did not even remember the crash, and he was unable to say how fast he was going at the time of impact. The speed limit at the place of the crash was 55 m.p.h.
This accident resulted in a personal injury lawsuit due to the severe injuries sustained by the people in the car. Yolanda and Kenneth were taken to Ocala Regional Medical center, while the other three people in the car were taken to Shands Hospital in Gainesville. All four children were 12 or younger at the time of the accident, while the youngest, Kenneth, was only 23 months old.
The mom and kids all suffered extremely severe injuries, including pelvic fractures, spinal fractures, rib fractures, femur fractures, traumatic brain injuries, a collapsed lung, spleen lacerations, and liver lacerations. One child, Kenneth, who was seven years old at the time, is now a paraplegic; he can no longer use his hands and no longer has control over his bladder or bowels.
Even the doctors who testified stated that two of the boys suffered catastrophic injuries. The past medical bills were estimated at around $500,000.00, and the future medical bills required to treat all of these injuries were estimated at $15.5 million.
The trial itself lasted six days, and the jury deliberated for just two hours before returning the nearly $52 million dollar verdict. It is believed to be the largest verdict in Marion County, Florida.
Though this verdict is obviously very large, with 5 seriously injured people, two of who were minors that sustained catastrophic injuries. These two minors may never be able to live normally and work in the future; the high number isn’t really much of a surprise to seasoned trial attorneys. No amount of money will ever equate to justice or will make up for what happened in a situation like this. How much is completely destroying a person’s life worth? $10 million dollars? $50 million dollars? $100 million dollars?
If you or a loved one has been the victim of negligence that has caused serious injury or death, please contact an experienced trial attorney to discuss your options.
Information used in this blog entry came from the Ocala Star Banner. Please see the following link for the original article:
http://www.ocala.com/news/20170228/family-receives-52m-verdict-for-2013-crash