$13.3 million verdict for woman left quadriplegic after faulty brakes cause bike accident

At 41, our client expected to have her best years ahead of her.  She had just gone back to school at the University of Arizona, planning to finish her degree and open an Indian jewelry store.  What she didn’t expect was to see one company’s negligence ruin that future – and change her life forever.

She never saw the accident at Yosemite Park coming – but the defendant, which rented her a bike with faulty brakes and never told her about the hill where serious accidents had occurred and cyclists had broken bones, should have.  So when the brakes failed and our client crashed into a tree, broke her neck, and was paralyzed from the neck down, her injuries weren’t just tragic, but entirely preventable.

Now quadriplegic and dependant on a breathing machine for the rest of her life, our client didn’t just want compensation for the harm she suffered and the future she would never have.  She wanted accountability.  The defendant didn’t make that easy.  During the five-month trial in Fresno, California, it continually blamed her for the accident, contending that she was negligent herself, because she shouldn’t have ridden down that hill.  We showed otherwise.  Taking the depositions of park rangers, we proved that more than 50 percent of those who cycled Lower Yosemite Falls rode down that same hill.  We showed that it was a common practice and argued that the bike rental company knew it, and knew the path was dangerous – but never warned our client.

That’s the way the jury saw it, too.  Their verdict – $13.3 million for our client – was a clear message that negligence doesn’t just carry a price for the victim, but for those that cause the harm, as well