On the morning of March 16, 2015, Scott Busch, age 57, of Portland, Oregon was walking across an intersection, with the pedestrian crossing signal, when he was hit and run over by an Allied Waste garbage truck making an illegal right turn. As a result, in addition to suffering head trauma and rib fractures, his left leg was severed below the knee. Subsequently, in emergency surgery, his left leg was fully amputated above the knee.
Busch brought suit against Allied Waste. He was represented by John M. Coletti of Paulson Coletti Trial Attorneys (www.paulsoncoletti.com). At trial, while there was no dispute that the driver was at fault for Mr. Busch’s injuries, future damages were hotly contested. Hayes+Associates was retained to perform a biomechanical analysis of the risk of future disabilities from Mr. Busch’s need to use a prosthetic limb for the rest of his life. Kristen E. Lipscomb, Ph.D. (https://www.hayesassoc.com/welcome/#our-team-section) was the lead H+A Associate for the case.
H+A contracted with the Bowerman Sports Science Clinic (Michael E. Hahn, Ph.D., Director) (https://bssc.uoregon.edu), to perform a gait analysis of Mr. Busch’s walking patterns with his prosthetic limb. His gait patterns were then compared with those of normal male adults of his age using the extensive database developed by the Bowerman Sports Science Clinic. The comparison showed that Mr. Busch’s walking patterns were substantially different from those of normal males of similar age. These differences included asymmetries between left and right legs, increased forces acting on the hip, knee and ankle of the opposite leg, and variations between the two legs in the timing and length of steps.
The H+A team concluded that over the millions of walking cycles in Mr. Busch’s life, the increased forces on his hips, knee and low back substantially increased his future risk of arthritis and low back pain. Moreover, his altered walking patterns, when using his prosthetic limb, were predicted to increase his risk for falling injuries. H+A founder, Wilson C. “Toby” Hayes, Ph.D., testified about these risk predictions in the original trial at which the jury awarded the Plaintiff the $13.5 Million award ($10.5 Million of which was for pain and suffering.) The trial judge subsequently reduced the $10.5 Million award to $500,000, citing a State cap on awards for pain and suffering. The recent order by the Oregon Court of Appeals, reinstating the $10.5 Million award, indicated that the trial judge’s application of the State cap violated the Oregon Constitution’s requirement for “substantial remedy.”
Hayes+Associates, Inc. (http://www.hayesassoc.com) is an expert witness and consulting firm based in Corvallis, OR. The company brings more than 75 years of collective experience in academic research, university teaching and forensic testimony to practice areas that include vehicle collisions, premises safety, slips and falls, products liability, worker safety, sports and recreation, patent litigation and criminal matters.
