Demco contractor crashes into School bus; $2M Settlement

BATON ROUGE, La. - April 14, 2015 - PRLog -- Plaintiff, a 68 year old school bus driver, was driving his school bus on Greenwell Springs road when a bucket truck pulling a trailer made a left turn in front of the bus.  The bucket truck was driven by a V-tech employee, who was a contractor for Demco.   Following this collision, the Plaintiff was diagnosed with an aggravation of his severe degenerative disc disease in his neck which was causing spinal cord compression and an aggravation of his previously torn rotator cuff.  As a result of these injuries, the Plaintiff underwent a C2-T2 fusion and a shoulder surgery.  These surgeries were successful, however the Plaintiff continued to experience moderate pain in his neck.  As a result of these injuries, the Plaintiff was unable to continue working as bus driver and was ultimately chose to retire.

The defendants contested causation by using the Plaintiff’s prior orthopedic medical records which contained many years of both neck and shoulder complaints.  Despite these records, the Plaintiff’s treating surgeon opined that the subject collision was the primary reason for both of the surgeries.  The Plaintiff’s past medical expenses were approximately $500,000.  The case was settled at mediation for $2,000,000.00.

Leslie Parms v. American Fire & Casualty Insurance Company, et al; No. 624564, 19^th JDC, 3/15

Plaintiff’s counsel:  Richard “Richie” Zimmerman, III, and Gordon McKernan, Gordon McKernan Injury Attorneys, Baton Rouge

Plaintiff’s experts:  Chambliss Harrod, Spine Surgery; Stephanie Chalfin, Life Care Planning