Motorcyclist Hospitalized Two Months With Brain Injury Settles Pitt County Crash for $2.99 Million

On November 26, 2015, Chase Cayton was riding a borrowed motorcycle down a narrow rural road near Kinston, in eastern North Carolina. Coming the other way, a pickup driven by a young man working for his father's business turned left to cut across the road into a driveway. The truck moved straight into Cayton's lane. He had no room to brake before he hit the side of it.

Cayton was 23 and managed a restaurant. The collision left him with a severe brain injury and a fractured right leg, and he spent roughly two months in the hospital. An injury to the brain reshapes the years that follow it, reaching into memory, concentration, and the ability to hold steady work.

Cayton hired Bob Whitley of the Whitley Law Firm in Raleigh. The defense disputed who caused the wreck, a familiar fight in left-turn motorcycle cases, where the driver who turns often argues that the rider was speeding or appeared out of nowhere. Whitley built the case on the physical evidence rather than on a swearing contest. That choice carried weight in North Carolina, one of the few states that still follows pure contributory negligence. Under that rule, a jury that found Cayton even slightly at fault could bar his recovery entirely, so showing that the crash was the truck driver's doing was not a detail. It was the whole case.

He retained Wade Bartlett, an accident reconstruction engineer, to map the speeds, sightlines, and timing of the two vehicles. Bartlett's analysis showed that the pickup turned across Cayton's right of way and left him no realistic chance to avoid the impact. With fault tied to the truck, the focus shifted to the cost of a two-month hospitalization and a brain injury that would not fully heal.

The suit was filed in Pitt County Superior Court. Before any trial date, the parties went to mediation, with Bonnie Weyher of Yates, McLamb and Weyher serving as mediator. On August 14, 2017, the truck's driver and his company agreed to pay $2,988,396 to resolve the claim.

Because the case ended in a negotiated settlement rather than a jury verdict, there was no award for the defense to appeal and no figure that a court later cut down. The full $2,988,396 stood.