$950K Settled for a Test Drive Accident

Our clients were at the Gosch Toyota lot in Hemet, CA. They had come to the lot specifically for one of our clients to see the KiaSoul. The Gosch salesman, the defendant, tried multiple times to show our clients the Ford Focus, even though our client wanted a Kia Soul. Eventually, the defendant determined there might be a Kia Soul on a different lot, and told our clients would drive them to the other lot. It is now when a crash test drive occurs that left our client with serious injuries.

Interestingly, the defendant stated in their deposition they had “turned” our clients over to another salesperson just before agreeing to drive them to another part of the car lot.

By turn, the defendant meant they were passing our clients to another salesperson because the defendant was not having any luck with them. The defendant got into the driver’s seat, while our client got into the front passenger seat. While our other client was getting into the rear passenger seat, the defendant pressed the acceleration, and the car moved forward.

Our client was then hopping alongside the vehicle on one foot because they were only partially in the vehicle. Our client turned to the defendant and yelled at them to stop the car, but the defendant did not. For some unknown reason, they seemed to be not cognizant of what was going on. A short time later, the defendant accelerated the speed of the car even more. Our client, unable to keep up with the speed of the car, our client fell to the ground. The defendant then finally came to a stop once our client had fallen to the ground.

Responsibility Was Clear

That same day, our clients went to the ER, where our client complained of back pain, among other things. Ultimately, our client sustained injuries mainly to their lower back, right knee, and right leg. More importantly, the injuries to our client’s knee and lower back required surgery, including multiple surgeries to their lower back.

The defendant is responsible for our client’s injuries because the defendant, an employee of Gosch, failed to exercise ordinary care in driving our clients to an adjacent lot to look for the Kia Soul. In the days following this incident, our client reached out to Gosch on numerous occasions, via phone and text, to try to get help with their injuries.

After attempting to contact someone at Gosch to no avail, our client emailed the corporate website. In the email, our client explained they had been trying to contact the defendant’s floor manager. However, their voicemail was invariably full. The defendant’s floor manager had also texted our client and said they would contact our client, but they never did. Eventually, our client had to seek the legal assistance of an Adamson Ahdoot car accident lawyer. Our personal injury expert recovered $950K in damages in this crash test drive case.