The attorney for an 81-year-old Portland man who suffered fractured ribs and neck and back injuries in a head-on car crash in Southington last year has settled the case with insurance adjusters for $375,000, without filing a lawsuit.

Carla Minnifield of Carter Mario Injury Lawyers represented Robert Bailey, whose 2006 Honda Accord was totaled after it collided with two vehicles on the Meriden-Waterbury Turnpike and Clark Street in May 2018.

Minnifield told the Connecticut Law Tribune that Alvaro Saltos-Yepez ran a flashing red traffic light in his 2000 Dodge Dakota,resulting in the crash at the intersection.

“He struck another vehicle and then veered into traffic hitting my client's car head-on,” Minnifield said.

That crash triggered a second collision with a vehicle driven by Brian Umberger, Minnifield said.

Police issued an infraction to the first driver, Saltos-Yepez, for failure to obey the traffic signal, but did not cite Umberger, leaving it to Minnifield to develop evidence from the scene.

The attorney gathered recordings from surveillance cameras at nearby stores, which captured the entire incident on video, helping to secure a settlement with Umberger's insurer.

Bailey suffered a fractured vertebrae, cervical fracture and multiple rib fractures. The injuries required him to undergo a laminectomy to enlarge the spinal canal and relieve pressure on the nerves, Minnifield said. After hospitalization, he entered rehabilitation for about a month, and incurred about $100,000 in medical expenses, she added.

Prior to the crash, Bailey had been active, doing yard work and other chores. But Minnifield said he “was not able to be self-sufficient” in the summer and fall following the crash.

“He was also unable to drive for a while, and that was the thing he complained the most about, not being able to get out and go places,” the attorney said.

Bailey settled with three insurance carriers, who paid in stages over an 11-month period, with the last payment on May 16. He received $25,000 in June 2018 from Saltos-Yepez's carrier, Progressive Corp., parent company of Progressive Insurance; $250,000 in July 2018 from his insurer, Geico; and another $100,000 in May from Geico under Umberger's policy, for a total of $375,000.

None of the three insurance adjusters who worked to settle the cases with Minnifield responded to a request for comment. Larry Zgoda of Geico, who handled the Umberger case, Chad Glazer of Progressive, who worked on the Saltos-Yepez matter, and Christine Dziuba of Geico, who handled Bailey's policy, did not respond to inquiries for this article.

Meanwhile, Minnifield said that Bailey, a retired state Department of Transportation worker, “is back home and is doing well.”

She said, “He was pleased with the outcome and, especially pleased that we were able to secure from the additional tortfeasor, Mr. Umberger.”

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