U-Haul Attorneys Claim Woman Partly To Blame In Highway Accident
A woman blinded when a piece of particleboard came off a U-Haul trailer and smashed through her windshield on the freeway was at least partly to blame because she was intoxicated at the time, attorneys for U-Haul say.Newly obtained medical records show that Maria Federici of Renton was drunk when the February 2004 accident occurred, lawyers said in court documents filed in King County Superior Court. Lab tests performed at Harborview Medical Center indicate her blood-alcohol level was 0.124 percent, or about one and a half times the legal limit of .08, the documents say.
Federici was left blinded and disfigured when an entertainment center fell off an open U-Haul trailer on Interstate 405 and part of it smashed into her windshield.
The accident prompted a new law to strengthen penalties for driving with an unsecured load.
In February 2006, Federici sued U-Haul, alleging it failed to warn renters that large items could fall out of an open trailer, as well as the man who was pulling the trailer and a Bellevue business that rented the trailer.
However, U-Haul attorneys said records show Federici was negligent and that her drinking was the reason she was following the trailer too closely and failed to apply her brakes or maneuver her car to avoid the crash.
The lab report was made available to attorneys in the ongoing lawsuit, which is set for trial in September. Federici is seeking unspecified damages for medical expenses, lost earnings, distress and loss of enjoyment of life.
Federici’s Kirkland attorney, Simon Forgette, said she wasn’t impaired and that witnesses saw her driving in a safe manner that night.
Forgette called the test results irrelevant.
“We don’t believe it’s scientifically valid or admissible. There is no evidence she could have done anything to prevent what happened,” Forgette said. “According to the eyewitnesses, there was apparently no time to react.”