In October 2004, a 54-year-old truck driver was waiting in his idling truck in New Jersey when another truck rear-ended him at 35 miles per hour. The man suffered a herniated disc in the neck and underwent two operations as a result of the tractor-trailer truck accident.

Four years later, the man was awarded $1.2 million as part of a settlement in a personal injury lawsuit against the at-fault truck driver and the truck driver’s company.

The driver responsible for the truck accident admitted he was picking up a dropped cell phone at the time of the accident. The injured man can never drive a truck again and claimed he lost more than $500K in future wages as a result of the commercial truck accident.

Source: Ken Serrano, “Truck driver injured in 2004 S. Plainfield collision settles $1.2M suit,” MyCentralJersey.com, October 15, 2008.