When business owners cut corners and put profits over the safety of their patrons, problems are inevitable. In this case, the owner of a Texas parking garage employed a subpar contractor to perform maintenance on the vehicle restraint system along the building’s perimeter. Safety regulations require barriers like these to be reinforced enough to prevent cars from falling off the building in the event of an accident. However, the unqualified contractor installed non-compliant metal cables, creating a safety barrier in name only. Consequently, one woman was catastrophically injured due to the negligent construction. She made a significant recovery over time but was devastated by permanent, lifelong pain.
Leading up to the incident, Ms. Bowmer had pulled into a parking space on the garage’s seventh floor. Instead of braking, she accidentally accelerated. Where the vehicle restraint system should have stopped her, Ms. Bowmer’s car sliced through the thin barrier like a hot knife through butter. She careened off the side, dropping 100 feet and crashing to the ground. Surveillance footage captured the terrifying incident as the vehicle’s front end collapsed in on itself. The intrusion looked fatal. Good Samaritans nearby heard the loud crash and rushed to Ms. Bowmer’s aid, pulling her from the wreckage.
Amazingly, Ms. Bowmer survived. However, she suffered head-to-toe injuries – some of which would never fully heal. At first glance, she made a miraculous recovery. Internally, though, she was plagued by the residual effects of her spinal fractures and Purtscher retinopathy, a hemorrhage to the retina that threatened her vision.
Ms. Bowmer called on Sean Breen of Howry Breen & Herman, LLP to help her attain compensation for her near-death experience. With the business owner liable for the incident, Sean focused on connecting damages to his client’s injuries. However, his client’s health was improving remarkably — at least superficially. He anticipated difficulty conveying the severity of her damages. To overcome this hurdle, Sean brought DK Global and his medical experts together to illustrate how devastating Ms. Bowmer’s injuries were.
The presentation began with a character model closely resembling Ms. Bowmer. Then, each substantial injury was recreated and highlighted, beginning with a 10-inch laceration across her scalp. Her comminuted thoracic and lumbar vertebrae hemorrhaged, revealing the force her body absorbed from the impact. Finally, to demonstrate the physical toll on Ms. Bowmer, her laminectomy was depicted, showing portions of her lamina removed and the fixation of pedicle screws along her spine.
After several back-and-forth mediations armed with the DK Global animations, Sean Breen obtained a sizeable confidential settlement for Ms. Bowmer shortly before trial.
Sean Breen is a record-setting, experienced trial attorney who has won numerous Hall of Fame verdicts and recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for his clients. Sean has been recognized as one of the “Best Lawyers in America” for personal injury, product liability, commercial litigation, and more. Additionally, Sean was selected to be part of the prestigious Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum, National Top 100 Trial Lawyers, and Super Lawyers.
