CHICAGO (WBBM) — A Chicago area man just received a record-breaking settlement from 7-Eleven after losing both his legs in a pin-in crash at a store back in 2017.
The case revealed a disturbing trend – cars slamming into storefronts across the country with alarming regularity.
In a CBS 2 Exclusive Tuesday night, CBS 2’s Charlie De Mar took a look at the data.
A northwest suburban man whom we are calling Carl is adjusting to life without his legs. He is now a double amputee.
Surveillance video and an animation provided to us of the 2017 incident show Carl waiting outside a Bensenville 7-Eleven, which he was visiting to pick up a coffee – as a driver attempting to park stepped on the gas instead of the brake.
Carl was left pinned between the store building and the car.
The driver later pleaded guilty to aggravated reckless driving.
“This is an avoidable incident if they take the necessary precautions,” said attorney Larry Rogers Jr.
Carl, who is now in his mid-50s, asked us not to identify him for his own safety after he was just awarded $91 million from 7-Eleven in the largest pretrial recovery for a person injured in Illinois.
We spoke with his attorneys from Power Rogers LLC.
“This is a national problem, that people are dying people are losing the limbs,” said attorney James Power, “so the idea that a corporation would be allowed to keep this from the public just was not something we were going to stand for.”
What happened to Carl is far from an isolated incident.
Over a 15-year period, 6,253 cars crashed into 7-Eleven storefronts in the U.S. – an average of 1.14 per day.
7-Eleven apparently fought in court to withhold that data from the public.
“They have not been producing that information for many, many years,” Rogers said, “and that’s what’s important about this case – getting this information out about how frequently this happens.”
Rob Reiter is co-founder of the Storefront Safety Council. He was retained as an expert…
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