Largest Motorcycle Accident Personal Injury Settlements

Shannon Shaw was riding his motorcycle in St. George, South Carolina, in September 2021 when an Amazon delivery van turned left across his path. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and orthopedic injuries that led to a cervical fusion. In December 2023 a Dorchester County jury found Amazon vicariously liable and grossly negligent and returned $44.63 million, including $30 million in punitive damages against Amazon.

A Marion County jury in March 2024 awarded $60.7 million to motorcyclist Christopher Dugan after a Tesla service manager crossed double yellow lines and struck him, leaving him with a permanent traumatic brain injury and a partial foot amputation; comparative fault reduced the net award to $42.5 million.

A Pierce County jury awarded $44.7 million to an EMT and volunteer firefighter left with permanent injuries after an SUV driver turned left through an uncontrolled intersection and into his path, a verdict Washington courts later upheld in full.

A Waterbury jury awarded Don Zemo IV $45 million after finding that a tow truck illegally parked outside MyHoopty.com's Oakville lot blocked the sightline for a car pulling out, causing a collision that left him permanently paralyzed.

A federal jury in Pennsylvania awarded $25 million to Travis Sweigart after a tractor-trailer driver turned left across his path at the exit of Interstate 176, crushing Sweigart's pelvis and leaving him with injuries the treating surgeon described as unquestionably the worst pelvic fracture he had ever seen.

Scott Bliss suffered catastrophic brain injury when a Scarsella Bros. dump truck made an illegal U-turn on an I-5 WSDOT construction ramp in Centralia, yielding what is believed to be the largest WSDOT settlement in Lewis County history.

A San Diego County jury awarded $16,420,725 to Jane Neely after a diseased tree branch broke from a state-maintained oak and fell across State Route 79 near Warner Springs, crushing the 75-year-old motorcyclist beneath it and leaving her permanently paraplegic.

A Los Angeles jury awarded $13,872,900 to a 42-year-old motorcyclist who said a low-speed collision caused neck and groin injuries. In December 2025 the Court of Appeal vacated the judgment and ordered a new trial because the plaintiff disclosed a new medical expert seven days before trial.

A Van Nuys jury awarded $11 million to motorcyclist Grady Dillon after a Los Angeles DWP driver made an unsafe left turn into his path, and the California Court of Appeal affirmed the full verdict in 2026.

A Navy veteran lost his right leg and the use of his arm after a Navy-operated van triggered a chain-reaction crash on Interstate 5; CaseyGerry secured a $10.8 million settlement, described as the largest federal vehicle-collision settlement in San Diego history.

A Linn County jury returned a $9 million verdict for Audrey Ford, a motorcycle passenger whose right leg was amputated above the knee after a driver pulled into the path of the bike at a rural Missouri intersection.

A Clayton County jury returned an $8 million verdict for U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Ronnie Stevens after a dump truck driver struck a construction barrel on I-75, launching it into Stevens's path and shattering his ankle and wrist.

A 40-year-old motorcyclist whose foot was traumatically amputated after an oncoming driver cut across his lane recovered $7 million in a settlement reached one month before trial.

A 40-year-old motorcyclist lost his left leg below the knee after a driver turned left across his path on U.S. Route 1 in Ashland, Virginia. The trial judge ruled the driver negligent as a matter of law and struck the contributory negligence defense, leaving only damages for the jury. On November 20, 2025, a Hanover County jury awarded $6 million after about 30 minutes of deliberation. The defendant has noted an appeal.

John Hendrickson, 45, lost his lower left leg after a head-on collision with an on-duty Border Patrol pickup on the Otay Mountain Truck Trail in San Diego County on Aug. 27, 2009. After a four-day bench trial under the Federal Tort Claims Act, Judge Larry Burns found damages of $6,338,491, assigned 85 percent of the fault to the United States and 15 percent to Hendrickson, and entered judgment for $5,387,717.35 in June 2014.

A Bronx jury awarded motorcycle passenger Jose Cabrera $5.1 million after a New York City Transit Authority bus driver merged into his lane and forced the bike into a concrete pillar; the First Department affirmed the liability verdict and pain-and-suffering awards while reducing future medical expenses, bringing the final judgment to $4.7 million.

A Chicago motorcyclist lost his left leg below the knee in 1988 when a driver ran a red light at Archer and Halsted just after a CTA bus driver waved him into the intersection. A Cook County jury awarded $4,492,710 and put 60 percent of the fault on the CTA and 40 percent on the driver. The Illinois Appellate Court affirmed the damages in full in 1996 and ordered a new trial only on the split of fault.

Anthony Ellis, 21, was hit by a left-turning driver while riding his motorcycle on US 301 in Riverview, Florida, in January 2016. He needed knee reconstruction and had broken bones in his foot. A Hillsborough County jury awarded about $3.83 million in May 2019 after a four-day trial in which the defense disputed fault.

A Hartford Superior Court jury returned a $3,476,025 verdict in September 2014 for motorcyclist Matthew Karotkin, who suffered skull fractures and a lung injury when a UPS driver cut left across his path at a Windsor, Connecticut intersection.

Chase Cayton, 23, suffered a severe brain injury and a fractured right leg when a pickup turned left across his path, and his suit in Pitt County Superior Court settled for $2,988,396.

A 24-year-old rider with a shattered femur and nearly $940,000 in medical bills won a $2.5 million verdict from a Denver jury in November 2022, a sum the firm reports fell to about $2,272,500 after a 20 percent comparative-fault reduction and interest.

William Gray Jr., 62, was riding a motorcycle through a Casper highway construction zone in September 2017 when a left-turning driver collided with him; he died sixteen days later. A Natrona County jury found the general contractor Knife River 60 percent at fault, its traffic-control subcontractor RoadWorx 30 percent, and the driver 10 percent. The $2.2 million award, reduced by the driver's share, left about $1.98 million for his widow and adult daughter. The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed in 2022.

A Sedgwick County jury awarded $1.7 million to a Wichita motorcyclist who struck city-installed bollards blocking an intersection that still showed a green traffic light, finding the City of Wichita negligent for shifting road-closure safety duties onto private applicants instead of its own traffic engineers.

The estate of an Army paratrooper killed when a pickup truck turned left into his motorcycle near Fayetteville settled its wrongful-death claim for $1.5 million.