$2.15 million settlement; DUI crash causes catastrophic injury

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Action: Dram shop/motor vehicle negligence

Injuries alleged: Catastrophic injury to thoracic spine

Case name: Withheld

Amount: $2.15 million

Date: November 2025

Attorneys: John Dodds IV and David Lail of Yarborough Applegate and Isaac Garcia of Garcia Law Firm, all in Charleston (for the plaintiff)

This case arose from a two-vehicle collision on Dorchester Road in North Charleston that occurred in the early morning hours of February 12, 2024.

In the minutes before the collision, a grossly intoxicated driver was involved in a minor sideswipe collision on Dorchester Road. That drunk driver attempted to flee the scene of that collision, but her vehicle stalled in the roadway because of the damage from the earlier collision. The drunk driver did not attempt to move her vehicle onto the shoulder or activate her hazards. Instead, her vehicle simply sat in the middle of the roadway with no lights or hazards activated. Eyewitnesses confirmed that this drunk driver passed out in her vehicle while in the middle of the roadway.

Minutes later, a separate vehicle being operated by a drunk driver was also driving on Dorchester Road in the same direction. Plaintiff was a front-seat passenger in this drunk driver’s vehicle and had been drinking alcohol with this drunk driver at a local bar in downtown Charleston earlier that night. The driver of this vehicle came upon the stalled vehicle with its passed-out driver, resulting in a high-speed, rear-end collision. Plaintiff, who was 29 years old at the time of the collision, suffered catastrophic injuries to his thoracic spine which resulted in a T8-T12 fusion surgery and a lengthy hospitalization. After failing a field sobriety test, the driver of plaintiff’s vehicle was arrested and charged with felony DUI with great bodily injury.

Plaintiff’s counsel initially filed suit against the two drunk drivers and investigated the facts and circumstances of the collision.

Toxicology results from the drunk driver who was passed out in her vehicle prior to the wreck showed that her BAC measured more than three times the legal limit. This drunk driver also admitted to investigating officers at the hospital that she had been drinking at a North Charleston bar prior to the collision. She later admitted in discovery that she was served and consumed an entire bottle of Patron tequila.

Receipts for the drunk driver of the vehicle in which the plaintiff was a passenger was shown to have purchased and consumed upwards of 10 alcoholic beverages from the bar in a two-hour period. Plaintiff’s counsel were able to prove through retrograde extrapolation that his BAC would have measured more than 0.2 percent at the time he was being served at this bar.

The plaintiff amended his complaint to add the two bars who overserved the drunk drivers, and the parties reached a global settlement on the eve of trial.