Inebriated driver settles with family injured in crash for $1.5M

A boy severely injured by an inebriated pickup-truck operator settled a suit against the driver and his insurer for a total of $1.35 million.

The settlement was the largest of four connected to the crash on July 17, 2017 in Independence. Altogether, the settlements totaled more than $1.54 million.

Owen Hernandez, who was 9 at the time, was seated in the back of his grandmother’s 2013 Chevrolet Cruze when it was struck by a 2003 Toyota Tundra pickup truck that had hit a median while attempting to turn into a retail parking area on northbound Missouri Route 291 near East Gudgell Avenue, an Independence Police Department report shows.

The Hernandez family car, driven by Gilbert Laughlin, the grandmother’s boyfriend, was coming to a stop while exiting the parking lot. The car was first struck in the rear and then again by an airborne trailer that had become separated from the pickup.

Pickup driver Tad Edward Mitchell, 51, of Independence, told police that he had consumed four beers prior to the crash. He pleaded guilty in April 2018 to a felony count of driving while intoxicated, causing serious bodily injury, online court records show.

Mitchell was sentenced to four years in prison and served 120 days of shock time before his release on a suspended execution of sentence.

Records provided by plaintiff’s attorney Laurie Del Percio show that Owen Hernandez — whose injuries included traumatic brain injury, partial hearing loss in his right ear, multiple facial fractures and displaced-bone forearm fractures of his right radius and ulna — will receive $1.25 million from his family’s Farmers Insurance policy via a 30-year structured settlement starting when he turns 18.

The settlement includes an additional $100,000 from the Hernandez family’s underinsured-motorist policy with GEICO.

Del Percio also represented passengers Tracy Hernandez, who settled her own claim against Mitchell regarding her neck and back injuries for $25,000, as well as Owen’s 4-year-old sister Kylie, who settled for $15,000 with neck and back injuries, and Laughlin, who settled for $4,000 for an abrasion above his eye. Kylie Hernandez’s settlement won court approval in September 2018.

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