Howry, Breen & Herman partner Sean Breen was recently featured in a DK Global case study involving a catastrophic crash in which a vehicle drove through a hospital emergency room waiting area and seriously injured a young family.
While many people think of motor vehicle accidents as roadway events, vehicle-into-building crashes occur more frequently than most realize. According to safety studies, thousands of vehicles strike commercial buildings, medical facilities, restaurants, and storefronts across the United States each year, often causing severe injuries or fatalities.
The case highlighted by DK Global raises important questions about premises liability and the responsibility property owners may have to protect visitors from foreseeable hazards. In situations where a property owner knows—or should know—about a particular risk, reasonable safety measures may be necessary to help prevent injuries. Depending on the location, those measures can include protective barriers, bollards, traffic control features, or other safeguards designed to separate vehicles from pedestrian areas.
According to the case feature, the hospital's parent company had installed protective bollards at other facilities and in certain areas to safeguard equipment, yet similar protections were not present outside the emergency room waiting area where patients and families gathered.
The case serves as a reminder that safety planning is not limited to preventing medical emergencies inside a hospital. Property owners, businesses, and institutions must also evaluate external risks that could endanger visitors, employees, and the public.
In the feature, Sean discusses the importance of clearly demonstrating the full impact of catastrophic injuries when presenting a case.
"If you skimp on things like visuals and the damage aspects of a case, then I think that you're going to shortchange your client when it comes to what kind of recovery you can convince a jury to give."
Visual evidence and case presentations can play a critical role in helping juries understand not only how an incident occurred, but also the lasting physical, emotional, and financial consequences suffered by those affected.
At Howry, Breen & Herman, we are committed to helping injury victims pursue accountability when preventable negligence leads to serious harm. Cases involving unsafe premises, inadequate security measures, or failures to address known hazards often require a thorough investigation into what risks were foreseeable and whether reasonable precautions were taken.
Watch the full DK Global feature to learn more about this case and the important safety issues it highlights.