PORT TOWNSEND — A Jefferson County jury has awarded a Chimacum woman $2.7 million from Sprint’s United Telephone Company of the Northwest for injuries sustained nine years ago when her car hit a dead horse that had been struck by a worker with the company.
The verdict was handed down Friday.
“This could have been avoided if they had taken some safety steps,” said Nanette Aurdal, 44, who added that she is still in pain from the injuries she received in the Dec. 14, 2001 collision.
“It changed my life forever,” she said.
Matt Boyle, the phone company’s attorney, said he would not comment about the verdict or the possibility of appeal before consulting with his client.
Dead black horse in road
It was 5 p.m. — dark in December — when the car Aurdal was driving struck a black horse lying dead in the southbound lane of Center Road in Chimacum.
Attorney Bill McGonagle, who represented Aurdal, said the horse had wandered onto the highway and was hit and killed by John Burston, an employee of United Telephone Company of the Northwest, a Sprint company.
Burston left the area, allegedly to seek help, McGonagle said.
McGonagle said that Burston was driving a company utility bucket truck that was equipped with flares, cones, and other safety devices that could have been used to warn drivers to exercise caution.
“This injury could have been easily prevented if the Sprint truck driver would have just stopped to protect the scene,” McGonagle said.
Car airborn
An eyewitness said Aurdal’s car vaulted off the horse and became airborne before crashing back to the pavement and stopping approximately 200 feet down the road, McGonagle said.
Aurdal sustained a “full body whiplash, pulling her spine, nerves and muscles so severely that conservative treatments did little benefit,” the attorney said.
“She had to resort to an implanted pain pump to get a modicum of pain relief,” McGonagle said.
The pump implanted into her abdomen secreted pain medication directly into her spinal cord.
Aurdal said that her injuries have made it impossible for her to have children and that paying for her health care has put her family into debt.
She said she also was forced to quit her job and forced the closure of her family business, Bill’s Garage in Chimacum, in 2006.
“Once my dad died, I couldn’t keep it open because I could only work two hours a day,”
She doesn’t know how much she will get from the verdict or how it will be allocated “because I haven’t gotten any of it yet.
“We don’t know if they will appeal, although I hope not,” she said.
McGonagle said the lawsuit was filed three years after the wreck, just before the statute of limitations expired.
This worked to Aurdal’s advantage, he said, as “it allowed us to find out exactly what her condition would be.
“She has suffered for nine years, and doctors have determined that she will endure pain for the rest of her life,” McGonagle said.
McGonagle said that parent company Sprint made Aurdal no offer to settle her claim prior to trial and accepted no responsibility for the incident.
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Jefferson County reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
