A trucker for an office supply distribution company was delivering materials to a site on a college campus when he chose to drive onto its central pedestrian thoroughfare. His risky decision became dangerous when he backed his vehicle onto the walkway. Driving in reverse, he checked the truck's mirrors and rear camera for obstacles. However, he hadn't been trained on a significant problem with both: a massive blind spot. This safety deficiency prevented him from seeing a young woman before he drove straight into and over her — twice.
The injured university student had immigrated to the United States as an unaccompanied minor and had been granted asylum to escape gang violence in El Salvador. She settled in Maine and, despite arriving with almost no English proficiency, graduated from high school as a valedictorian. The young woman could have attended college anywhere in the United States but opted to attend university in her home state. On the second day of her third year at school, the Defendant's truck collided with her from behind, buckling her beneath it. Her head and body smashed into the ground. The vehicle dragged her eight feet across the stony thoroughfare, degloving flesh and fracturing several bones. When the driver realized what had occurred, he drove forward, hit the Plaintiff again, before finally bringing the truck to a standstill. Behind him, the student lay screaming and permanently injured at the end of a trail of blood.
The wounded young woman was introduced to Benjamin Gideon, a partner at Gideon Asen. As Maine's three-time "Lawyer of the Year" and the architect of his state's most successful personal injury and medical malpractice firm, Ben knew immediately that the Plaintiff deserved the kind of world-class advocacy that only an attorney of his caliber could provide. He set to work assembling the clearest possible picture of the tragedy that had befallen her.
Ben’s first hurdle to clear was the complete lack of surveillance footage. Consequently, he gathered eyewitness accounts of what had transpired. However, he discovered via cross-examination that their stories were contradictory and unreliable. His search for the truth ultimately led him to the most credible witness: an individual who had twice seen the Defendant's truck bearing down on the Plaintiff. Their account was invaluable, as it established a factual baseline from which Ben could work with experts to understand how the Defendant's driver failed to see the Plaintiff.
Despite finding a reliable witness, inconsistent testimony by others enabled the Defense to argue that the Plaintiff had been wavering in and out of the truck's path. That, they insisted, prevented the driver from seeing her. They also suggested that the Plaintiff had been negligent because she had worn earbuds while walking, rendering her unable to hear the truck's backup alarm.
Ben worked with multiple experts to rebut the Defense’s claims. First, he hired an accident reconstructionist and an expert in trucking practices. They discovered that the Defendants' trucks had poor rear visibility and had incorrectly trained their drivers. The vehicles' rear-facing cameras were in fact aimed downwards to assist with positioning at loading docks; they could not be safely used as backup cameras. The large blind spot empowered Ben to marshal a perfect counterargument: if the Plaintiff had indeed walked out from behind the truck, she would have exited its blind spot and become visible to the driver. The Defense's supposition had backfired and helped Ben's case. Ben also hired an expert in human factors, who clarified that anybody driving onto a college campus should expect pedestrians to be wearing earbuds and to take appropriate precautions. Even with the Defense's claims rebuffed, though, Ben knew that he needed to illustrate the Plaintiff's story such that a jury would follow and understand its complex moving parts. He reached out to DK Global, which created an animated accident reconstruction.
DK Global's presentation began with drone footage of the scene of the accident and proceeded to a complete animated reconstruction from a bird's-eye perspective of the truck striking the Plaintiff. A static image established the pre-accident locations of the truck, the Plaintiff, and the key witness. The presentation transitioned to the witness's two-stage point of view of the accident, demonstrating a critical fact of the case: that the Plaintiff had been in and never deviated from the truck's path. The animation simulated the driver's point of view of the entire backup event, including glances to his mirrors and backup camera, the latter of which showed the Plaintiff seconds before impact. An interlude in the presentation featured an expert's diagram of the truck's zone of visibility and blind spot. The presentation shifted to an overhead view of the accident reconstruction with the diagram overlaid such that the Plaintiff's temporary invisibility to the driver was undeniable. The presentation segued to an additional point of view showing the Plaintiff's route if she had — as suggested by the Defense — wandered into and out of the truck's path, thereby becoming visible to the driver in the process. The presentation concluded with four clips of safer alternative scenarios with both satellite and animated footage proving their feasibility.
Ben had expected the case to proceed to trial and had even conducted studies to ascertain what value a jury might have assigned to it; however, one month after he submitted DK Global's presentation to the Defense, mediation began. Until then, the Defendant hadn't made an offer, so Ben was surprised by their sudden willingness to settle the case. Though the settlement was confidential, it was even better than what a jury would have awarded. It allowed the Plaintiff to rebuild her life and continue pursuing her dream of giving back to her community as a teacher or social worker.
Benjamin Gideon is a partner at Gideon Asen, a personal injury firm in Maine, whose case resolutions average more than $1,000,000. Over 17 years at another firm, Ben progressed from associate to owner and practice leader, reinvented that firm's strategies, and ultimately built Maine's most successful personal injury and medical malpractice law firm. He has been listed in Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers annually since 2013. In 2019, he became the second lawyer in Maine to be inducted into the Inner Circle of Advocates, an invitation-only group limited to 100 of the top plaintiff lawyers in the United States. He's won over $200,000,000 in settlements and verdicts, 40 of which were for over $1,000,000. He also coauthored Bad Medicine: Litigating Medical Malpractice Claims in Maine and dozens of law review articles.
