Personal Injury Lawyer in Mobile Blog | Taylor Martino, PC

(MOBILE, Ala.) - Joseph Toomey, a 16-year-old Satsuma High School football standout paralyzed in a 2007 automobile accident, has filed a lawsuit against General Motors Corporation, Mobile County, the Mobile County Commission and the City of Prichard. The lawsuit claims ten counts of negligence, breach of warranty and wanton disregard for the safety of the motoring public.

Toomey was driving a 1999 GMC Jimmy November 20, 2007 on Kushla McLeod Road in Prichard when the accident occurred. Toomey received his driver’s license only three weeks before the accident. The lawsuit claims that due to a lack of proper signage, a sharp left curve in the road caught Toomey by surprise and his vehicle veered off the road. Toomey tried to regain control of his SUV, swerved into a ditch and rolled over. The vehicle’s roof caved in on Toomey’s head, fracturing the vertebras in his neck. Two passengers in the vehicle escaped with minor injuries, but Joseph was trapped inside. Prichard police and paramedics spent more than an hour cutting him out of the car. According to paramedics, Toomey was wearing his seatbelt at the time of the accident.

“Before the accident, this young man was looking forward to playing football for the University of Alabama. Now, he’s in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the chest down," said Toomey's attorney, Richard Taylor. Taylor said a ‘dangerous curve’ sign posted along the road was upside down, indicating that the road would curve in the other direction. Taylor also said that residents had complained to the city and the county about the improper sign, but that it was never repaired. Defective design of the GMC Jimmy is another component of the lawsuit. “GMC didn’t build the roof or the seat belt to protect Joseph in a rollover accident,” said Bruce Petway, one of Toomey’s lawyers. "There are thousands of rollover accidents a year in this country and General Motors put a vehicle on the road that they knew would not protect Joseph in this situation. GM is responsible for ruining his life.”

In the year since his accident, Toomey has undergone spinal cord surgery and months of rehabilitation at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta. Toomey is home now continuing his rehab. He requires specialized medical care now and will for the rest of his life. Because of his staggering medical bills now and in the future, Toomey and his mother are asking for an undetermined amount of compensatory damages from the defendants in the case. “My son was hurt because of negligence. His life and our family have been irreparably damaged,” says Regina Toomey. “Joseph needs and deserves the best care available. It’s only right.” For more information, contact Richard Taylor at Taylor Martino, PC, (251) 433-3131, or Bruce Petway at Petway & Tucker, LLC, (205) 733-1595 or (800) 365-1631.