Aug
23
Jessica Blankenship had been a typical, active 15-year-old girl. In July 2003, she and two of her friends from the small community of Webb City decided to drive to Joplin for a day of shopping and entertainment. Blankenship rode in the back of her friend’s 1995 Chevrolet Lumina with a lap seatbelt properly secured. The 16-year- old driver and a third girl were in the front seats and secured with seatbelts designed with both lap and shoulder straps.
While on the road, the driver failed to execute a curve while traveling between 26 and 30 miles per hour and crashed into a tree. The two girls in the front of the minivan suffered minor injuries and recovered within a couple of weeks.
However, Blankenship was flung forward with the impact, and the lap belt restraint severed her spinal cord at the L3 and L4 vertebrae, causing her to become paralyzed from the waist down. She also suffered from torn abdominal muscles and damaged intestines due to the single strap restraint.
During the crash, Blankenship’s head hit the back of the front seat, causing fractures to the C1 and C2 vertebrae of her neck. This impact also caused traumatic brain injury.
Plaintiff’s lawyer Tim Morgan said General Motors knew about the dangers associated with lap belts and argued that the addition of a shoulder belt to the center van seat could have helped in preventing the extent of injuries Blankenship suffered.
Defense lawyer Rodney Loomer stressed that, while Blankenship’s injuries are tragic, the age of the vehicle and industry standards at the time of its design need to be taken into consideration before claims of negligence can be properly attached to the case.
Although Blankenship will probably never walk again, Morgan said, she is fighting back by undergoing physical therapy and applying herself academically with going to college as her next goal. The bottom line is she is paralyzed and will need constant care for the rest of her life, Morgan said.
Morgan and Loomer agreed separately that, although they can disagree on any responsibility to be held by the carmaker, they were both impressed with Blankenship and wanted to do what was appropriate for her in a settlement.
She really is an amazing person, Morgan said. Her attitude throughout this thing was pretty good. There were even comments made by emergency personnel on the scene about how polite and cordial she was even though she knew there was something wrong because she couldn’t feel her legs after the incident.
A lot of people wonder about confidential settlements, Loomer said. They think it is because some big corporation is trying to hide things. But when you live in a town like the Blankenships live [in], and there’s like 200 people in that town, you get a settlement for whatever it is, and every relative and every salesman in the whole world starts to come out.
