It took jurors all of 25 minutes to decide who was at fault and how much money to award in a two-car accident in Pontoon Beach in February, 2010.
On the morning in question, a car driven by Crystal Carney of Pontoon Beach was rear-ended by a car driven by Peggy B. Raymond, also of Pontoon Beach.
On Monday, Carney testified that around 9:15 a.m. on Feb. 10, she was returning from Mitchell School, where her friend, Theresa Hooker, had met with a teacher. Carney had been stopped for about 10 seconds at a traffic light at Illinois 111 and Engineer Road when she was bumped from behind by Raymond’s car.
The cars drove to a nearby convenience store parking lot where, by chance, a police officer and paramedic had just stopped.
Raymond admitted fault. Carney and Hooker declined to be taken to the emergency room that morning, though they saw a chiropractor the next day.
Under questioning by her attorney, Christopher Geldemacher, Carney described the jolt as a “hard†impact. She turned to Hooker and asked what had happened, which prompted attorney Debora Bell Yates to wonder how hard the impact actually was.
Both Carney and Hooker, the passenger, later claimed to have minor injuries. Both went to a chiropractor for therapy.
Geldemacher told jurors that while Raymond had admitted causing the accident, she and her attorney had declined to pay the victims’ medical bills.
Yates told jurors that Carney had testified in a deposition that she had injured her left shoulder while on Monday she claimed that it was her right. Carney said that it actually was her right shoulder.
Geldemacher told jurors that Carney had simply become confused during the deposition.
In the end, jurors awarded Carney $5,350 and $8,565 to Hooker for hers.
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