Last Saturday morning, an Asheville bus driver, Ralph Terry Dowdle, ran off of College Street, up onto the sidewalk, and struck a woman who was entering the Mediterranean Restaurant. After striking the woman, the bus continued to collide with the entrances of several businesses. The woman, whose identity has not been released, suffered a severe injury to her leg. Hospital officials have said that doctors had to amputate her leg. She is still listed at Memorial Mission Hospital as being in critical condition.
The Asheville Police Department (APD) has issued a report that says that the bus driver lost consciousness just before the accident. The loss of consciousness is allegedly due to an undiagnosed medical condition, though officials have not disclosed what that condition is. As a result, the District Attorneys office has decided not to file criminal charges against the bus driver.
Mr. Dowdle works for a subsidiary of First Transit, which operates the public transportation system in Asheville. One can only wonder how a bus driver could have a serious medical condition, that could cause him to lose consciousness, and not be aware of it. In this author’s legal opinion, the bus driver, his employer First Transit and the City of Asheville are all liable for the woman’s serious injuries. We can only hope that all of the responsible parties will do the right thing and help compensate the injured lady for all of her harms and losses. More often than not, in situations like this, we are told that there was no way that anyone could have known this might happen, and therefore we are not responsible for the injuries. In such cases, litigation is the only way to discover the truth.
Amputations are extremely serious injuries, and there are often severe complications associated with an amputation. Common complications from an amputation include infection, blood clots, pressure sores and phantom pain. Phantom pain is where one feels the sensation of still having the amputated limb, and it is painful.
In cases involving serious injuries like amputations, we often use medical animation to graphically depict the medical procedure. Such animations are helpful to show the other side (defendants and their attorneys) what our client has been through. In contested liability cases (where the other side denies responsibility for causing the incident), we will also often use computer animation to show how and why a particular accident happened.
In a case involving a bus accident that killed a pedestrian at an airport, an accident reconstruction animation was used to show how the accident occurred. As part of the animation, it was demonstrated how a simple concrete barrier could have totally prevented the collision.
At Davis Law Group, we use cutting edge computer technology to help our clients recover the compensation they deserve for their losses and harms caused by the negligence of others. If you or a loved one have been seriously injured because of someone’s negligence or recklessness, contact attorney Brian Davis to discuss your situation. Consultations are free, and there is no obligation.