Shrager, Spivey & Sachs

In a highly challenging fact pattering, managing partner Rob Sachs was able to obtain a settlement following mediation on behalf of the widow of a lifetime motorcyclist who died in an accident involving a truck. The cyclist struck the rear of a tri-axle truck after it entered a two-lane highway in Schuylkill County after leaving the site of a former coal mine. Investigators at the scene quickly concluded that the cyclist was at fault, which his children failed to accept. His children went to the scene of the accident to photograph trucks entering the coal mine site and the rear lights of the truck. Photographs showed billowing clouds of dust, which could have obscured the cyclist’s view of oncoming traffic. Attorney Sachs was able to show that the truck’s driver had failed to properly perform a pre-trip inspection to make sure all of his vehicle’s lights were clean to maximize the ability of oncoming traffic to see him in situations with lower visibility. When Attorney Sachs took the sworn testimony of the driver, he denied that his truck had created any sort of dust cloud which could have impaired his view. When Attorney Sachs confronted him with photos of similar dust clouds, his credibility and veracity were seriously undermined. Attorney Sachs was able to negotiate a settlement for the cyclist’s family in the face of facts which other attorneys had deemed hopeless.