Cyclist's Brain Injury After a Driver Ran a Stop Sign Settles for $2.3 Million in Forsyth County

In June 2011, a 35-year-old man was riding his bicycle downhill in Forsyth County when a driver failed to brake at a stop sign and crossed directly into his path. He was not wearing a helmet. The bicycle and the car collided, and his head took the brunt of the impact.

The rider suffered a traumatic brain injury. He spent roughly three months in the hospital and then moved to a rehabilitation center, where he was still recovering when the case resolved. In the early weeks he could not communicate. By the time the settlement was approved, he had regained some speech and could operate a television remote again.

North Carolina is one of the few states that still applies pure contributory negligence, a rule under which a plaintiff found even slightly at fault can recover nothing. The driver's insurer, USAA, pointed to the missing helmet and the speed of the descent and signaled it might raise that defense. Benjamin H. Whitley and Robert E. Whitley of the Whitley Law Firm prepared to sue both the driver and her husband to reach the full stack of available coverage. The insurer backed away from the contributory negligence argument.

USAA agreed to pay $2.3 million, the combined limits of the driver's underlying liability and umbrella policies. The client's medical costs were climbing and he depended on Medicaid, so his lawyers asked the court to approve the money quickly and place it in a special needs trust. That structure preserved his eligibility for benefits while covering care the program would not. "We would not have been able to provide the care that he needed within the first year" without the expedited approval, Benjamin Whitley said.

Judge William Z. Wood of Forsyth County Superior Court signed the order approving the settlement in October 2011, about four months after the crash.