Wrongful Death Results from Negligent Toledo, Ohio Driver in Motor Vehicle Accident
Wrongful death from driver's attempt to beat the light resulted in a fatal crash and a verdict for the Plaintiff in Toledo, Ohio. The decedent was driving his car southbound on Talmadge Road near the intersection of the eastbound entrance ramp to I-475 when he attempted to take a left hand turn onto Springbrook Drive when he was hit by a speeding northbound vehicle whose driver attempted to beat the light and ended up running the red light at the intersection. The jury found that each of the parties were partially at fault for the car accident.
The case involved the Toledo, Ohio attorney introducing evidence from the black box data of the northbound vehicle and light sequencing data in an effort to show that the northbound vehicle was speeding. The decedent suffered blunt force head trauma and died five days post-accident after being removed from life support. Prior to the trial, the demand in the wrongful death case was $500,000 by the plaintiff and the offer from the insurance company was $200,000.
After trial, the jury attributed 60 percent liability to the defendant (driver of the northbound vehicle) and 40 percent liability to the decedent (plaintiff). The jury returned a $750,000 wrongful death verdict, which was reduced to $450,000 due to the comparative negligence finding. That is, in Ohio, under Ohio Revised Code 2315.33, the contributory fault of a person does not bar the person as plaintiff from recovering damages that have directly and proximately resulted from the tortious conduct of one or more other persons, if the contributory fault of the plaintiff was not greater than the combined tortious conduct of all other persons from whom the plaintiff seeks recovery in this action and of all other persons from whom the plaintiff does not seek recovery in this action. In this case, the court diminished the compensatory damages recoverable by the plaintiff by an amount that was proportionately equal to the percentage of tortious conduct of the plaintiff as determined pursuant to the law.
