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Case Summaries

Defective Rear Underride Guard Renders Man Quadriplegic

Mohave County, Arizona: On June 8, 2011, Dennis Clem was travelling north on Interstate 15 in a 2007 Chrysler Town and Country minivan at approximately 5:40 a.m. The defendant truck driver was driving a truck tractor towing a trailer. The truck driver was moving slowly in the right-hand lane when it was rear ended by Mr. Clem after cresting a hill. The collision resulted in the truck’s trailer overriding Mr. Clem’s vehicle causing catastrophic injuries to Dennis Clem resulting in quadriplegia and other severe injuries. The significant intrusion of Dennis Clem’s vehicle into the driver’s side of the rear end of the trailer occurred because the rear underride guard, which collapsed on impact, was defectively manufactured, designed and was unreasonably dangerous.

Wigington Rumley Dunn & Blair, LLP joined as co-counsel on behalf of the family against the manufacturer and designer of the rear underride guard contending that it failed to provide any protection in a rear impact. This case settled for a confidential sum.