(Please note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the participants in this bus accident/personal injury case and its proceedings.)
The following blog entry is written from a defendant’s position as trial approaches. Reviewing this kind of briefing should help potential plaintiffs and clients better understand how parties in a personal injury case present such issues to the court.
COME NOW defendants Bus USA, and move the Court in limine for an order excluding the expert witness testimony of Joseph Awad, the plaintiffs accident reconstruction and biomechanics expert.
Mr. Awad was deposed in this matter on February 1st. Mr. Awad testified at that time plaintiff Molly Chance entered the crosswalk at Fourth Street and Elm Street on the WALK phase of the green signal and proceeded to cross the street. (Awad deposition page 93.) Mr. Awad also testified that defendant Paul Davie (the bus driver) focused his attention on two pedestrians who were walking from west to east in the same crosswalk and that as a consequence, Ms. Chance walked into a zone of no visibility for the bus driver who proceeded to turn the bus left into Ms. Chance. (Awad deposition, pages 93 to 95 .)
Mr. Awad based the foregoing opinions on the length of the Walk phase of the green signal for Chance’s direction of travel as measured at 13 seconds by Mr. Awad on January 30th 2008. (Awad deposition page 91.); the walking speeds of the pedestrians and Ms. Chance (Awad deposition pages 69, 70, and 71.); and upon the unwarranted assumption that on the date of loss Ms. Chance limps or is otherwise “hobbled” due to injuries she sustained in an auto crash in 1998 (Awad deposition, page 71 to 72.). (See Part 2 of 2.)
For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.