Laura Stonebreaker claimed her car insurance after being the victim of a crash two years ago. “You know that sick feeling you get in your gut?” Stonebreaker said. “I knew she didn’t see me. I knew she was going to hit me.” Stonebreaker lost her leg in the crash and has endured six operations, months of rehabilitation and nearly $300,000 in medical costs. But what causes her the most pain, she said, is the feeling that she has been forgotten by everyone and left to fend for herself.
Stonebreaker was riding her 2000 Harley-Davidson motorcycle near her home in rural Corunna, traveling south on C.R. 13 on May 22, 2006, when a blue Toyota turned left into a driveway — directly in her path. According to police report, the other driver said she did not see Stonebreaker approaching.
Stonebreaker’s bike slammed into the passenger side of the car, and her right leg was crushed between the two vehicles. Her head slammed into the car’s windshield. Several inches of tissue and muscle were sheared off her leg, leaving the bone exposed. Stonebreaker was thrown 70 feet and landed in a hay field.
“I was wearing a helmet, otherwise I would not be here today,” Stonebreaker said. Lying in the field waiting for the Samaritan helicopter, she was fully conscious, Stonebreaker said. “I found out later — from my insurance company — that the other driver had contacted her insurance company to get auto insurance during that time I was waiting for the Samaritan helicopter,” Stonebreaker said. The accident report said the crash occurred at 3:14 p.m. An insurance official told Stonebreaker that at 3:15 p.m., the other driver did not have auto insurance, but by 3:37 p.m. she was covered. Later, when the other driver’s insurance company ruled her policy was null and void, she was cited with failure to show proof of insurance, an infraction.
Stonebreaker, who is employed as a maintenance mechanic at Cooper-Standard Automotive in Auburn, spent two days in an intensive-care unit and nearly four weeks in the hospital. Her leg bones were splinted and the bone was destroyed. Doctors amputated her leg below the knee and then, a few days later, amputated it above the knee. Doctors put a metal bar in Stonebreaker’s femur and repaired her broken hip with plates and screws. She had three broken vertebrae in her back, and her left hand was broken.
She was released from the hospital June 16, 2006, but faced months of grueling rehabilitation. She did not return to work until May 2007. DeKalb County court records show that the other driver was issued two tickets, one for $161.50 on May 22, 2006, for failure to yield and one for $209.50 for failure to provide financial responsibility or insurance on July 22, 2006. The court allows 60 to 90 days for the fines to be paid. Documents show that the driver failed to appear in court or pay the tickets or late fees. The Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles was notified Aug. 2, 2006, and her driver’s license was suspended.
And that’s where everything came to a stop, Stonebreaker said. Her insurance covered about 80 percent of her $300,000 in medical costs, but Stonebreaker was left with a large portion to pay out of her own pocket.
Stonebreaker said she filed a lawsuit in February 2007 to garnishee the other driver’s wages for restitution, but the woman filed bankruptcy, and the garnishment was canceled. Stonebreaker wonders why the other driver was not tested for alcohol or drugs at the scene of the crash. “Anyone involved in a serious accident should be tested,” she said.
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