SUV Struck By Truck

In Driver v. Fire Department (So. Cal. Sup. Ct.) Douglas Saeltzer and Spencer Pahlke negotiated a $4,050,000 settlement arising from a collision between a fire truck and the plaintiff at a major intersection. While the plaintiff approached the intersection with a green light, she did not hear a fire truck approaching with its sirens and lights on. Witnesses testified they heard the siren impact and responded by stopping and pulling over. Not hearing anything, the plaintiff sped up, exceeding the speed limit by more than 10 miles per hour. In the crash that followed, the fire truck broadsided plaintiff in her SUV, sending her rolling more than 70 feet into one of the cars that had pulled over. As a result of the crash, plaintiff suffered pelvic fractures and associated sequalae including chronic low-back pain and upper thigh pain which required therapy lasting more than three years after the crash.