It is not often that you hear of a highway construction worker involved in a workers' compensation suit. Construction areas on the highway usually have drastically reduced speed limits and myriad safety measures to prevent tragic circumstances. More than ten years ago, a driver disobeyed a construction area slowdown and ultimately struck a construction crew member, pushing that man 60 feet from the impact and roughly 15 feet in the air, according to witnesses.

Now that man, who was 31 years old at the time of the tragedy, has won a $3 million workers' compensation settlement after the collision left him a quadriplegic and requiring around-the-clock care.

He also won a personal injury case in 2004 that awarded him more than $75 million, though a Philadelphia judge later trimmed the amount in half to $38 million. The personal injury case was filed against the driver and his place of employment, a restaurant that apparently served him alcohol before the collision.

The 31-year-old was a flagman at a highway construction site in 2001. He stopped a line of vehicles on January 17 of that year, but the last vehicle in the line ignored the order. The driver sped his car past the other vehicles and crashed into the man. Worse still, the driver fled the scene.

The 31-year-old suffered horrific injuries which included a shattered leg and elbow, a broken neck, a partially severed spinal cord, and multiple brain injuries. He had to spend seven months in a hospital, and though he has since stabilized from the incident, he will require 24-hour medical attention.

Source: The Times Herald, "Lower Pottsgrove man wins worker's comp award in Bucks crash case," Carl Hessler Jr., Dec. 16, 2011