According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly five-thousand motorcyclists are killed in traffic accidents each year. In many cases, it is because most drivers don't check to make sure it's safe before changing lanes on the highway.
When one driver changed lanes on the freeway without looking, they drove directly into the path of a police officer traveling on his motorcycle. The officer slammed into the rear of the vehicle, was ejected from his bike, and thrown a significant distance. Luckily, he had been wearing a full-face helmet and protective clothing, but the officer still lost consciousness at the scene.
The police officer suffered life-altering injuries, including a broken elbow and wrist, six broken ribs, a traumatic brain injury, and more. Immediately after the accident, the officer was flown by air ambulance to Loma Linda Medical Hospital. There he underwent emergency corrective surgeries that placed hardware along his wrists to stabilize the fractures he suffered. When he awoke from his surgery, the officer’s treating physician delivered devastating news: he would no longer be able to continue work as a full-time police officer and would have to seek employment elsewhere. He decided to reach out to Adam Shea and Ryan Casey of Panish Shea & Boyle LLP to represent him and help seek proper compensation for the damages he suffered.
To help illuminate the pain their client endured, Adam and Ryan brought together their team of medical experts to collaborate with DK Global’s artists. Together, they created a presentation that demonstrated their client’s injuries, utilizing the medical imagery obtained when admitted to the hospital.
The presentation began with a 3D character of the officer’s likeness in uniform to help familiarize the viewer with the individual. As the camera pans downward, all his internal injuries, from his traumatic brain injury to his facial fractures, are illustrated. Finally, a full summary reveals just how extensive his damages were. Lastly, to further convey the life-changing effects and invasiveness of the police officer’s surgeries, DK Global created an animation to show the hardware being installed into his right arm to repair his fractures.
With these animations effectively communicating their client’s complex injuries and the placement of hardware along his arm, Adam and Ryan secured a high seven-figure settlement for the officer.
Panish Shea & Boyle LLP founding partner, Adam Shea, is a nationally recognized trial lawyer with extensive experience and success representing individuals and families in catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases across Southern California. Mr. Shea has a proven track record of helping those who have been harmed by negligence, wrongful conduct, violations of safety rules, and defective products – including automotive and tire product defects. He has achieved over 200 settlements and multi-million dollar jury verdicts.
Ryan Casey is a trial attorney at Panish Shea & Boyle LLP, focusing his practice on litigating large and complex personal injuries, wrongful death, and product defect cases on behalf of injured individuals and consumers in Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties. Since joining the firm, Mr. Casey has handled complex factual cases involving trucking collisions, auto collisions, construction site injuries, industrial injuries, recreational sporting injuries, and multiple defective product cases. In these cases, Mr. Casey has obtained favorable results through trial or settlement, and successfully recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for his clients in lawsuits against negligent individuals, public entities, and corporations.