Crash victim gets $82,650

Jurors deliberated for four hours Wednesday before awarding $82,650 to a Collinsville woman whose car was rear-ended in a two-car accident in Glen Carbon.

“Now we can get on with our life,” Betty Weckmann said as she left the courtroom.

Her husband, Clark Weckmann, added, “We’re glad it’s over. It’s been a strain on everybody.”

The trial itself was brief. It began Tuesday, and by noon the next day, the attorneys for each side had presented their case and finished with closing arguments.

Circuit Judge David Hylla sent the jurors off to deliberate around 12:15 p.m.

The closings reiterated arguments and evidence that each side had presented in the courtroom. Weckmann’s attorney, Mark Hassakis, reminded jurors that Dorothy Bonn had acknowledged driving two or three miles per hour over the speed limit just before the March 23, 2007 crash. Hassakis had alleged that Bonn, now 89, was following too closely and failed to stop her vehicle in time to avoid the accident. Weckmann was stopped in traffic on Illinois 157 when Bonn’s car struck her from behind.

Bonn acknowledged, in a videotaped deposition, that she was a car-length or two behind Weckmann by the time she applied the brakes.  She was not in court for the verdict.

Weckmann, who is 58 and lives on a horseradish farm in Collinsville, complained of neck pain but did not go to the emergency room until the next morning. In the intervening period, she has undergone two surgeries and racked up $178,000 in medical bills.

Bonn, he said, had been careless that day, and Weckmann should be compensated for the accident that ensued. Weckmann, Hassakis said, was simply a victim of Bonn’s negligence. “It’s akin to going to a shop for an oil change and they forget to put the filter back on, and the engine blows,” he said.

Defense attorney James Hodges characterized the collision as a “bump,” so slight that Bonn’s airbag didn’t deploy. Both drivers had referred to it as a “medium impact” collision.

Bonn, he said, was clearly not any more negligent or imprudent that day than the average driver would have been.

In the end, jurors awarded $69,828 for past medical expenses, $7,872 for loss of wages, and $5,000 for pain and suffering.

“It was a long hard battle, but I’m glad she got some vindication for her accident,” Hassakis said afterward. “They put on what’s called a low-impact defense, and they had fun with that for a while. This is kind of a vindication of that.”