A Fort Collins Car Crash, a Shattered Wrist, and a Full Policy-Limits Recovery
Result Snapshot
| Case type | Car accident, failure to yield (a driver entering a roadway from a parking lot) |
|---|---|
| Injury | Comminuted, intra-articular fracture of the dominant wrist, plus a second broken bone. Surgery with hardware, then months of hand therapy. |
| Where | Lemay Avenue and Haxton Drive, Fort Collins, Larimer County, Colorado |
| Resolution | Insurance settlement for the combined maximum policy limits available on the claim ($150,000) |
| Attorneys | Todd A. Travis and Jordan M. Travis |
| Year | No year |
Overview
A normal morning turned into more than a year of surgery and hard work because another driver could not wait a few seconds. Pulling out of a parking lot near Lemay Avenue and Haxton Drive in Fort Collins, the at-fault driver failed to yield and drove straight into the front of our client’s car. The dominant wrist took the worst of it. Rampart Injury Lawyers took the case, built the full damages picture, and recovered the combined maximum policy limits available on the claim, a total of $150,000.
Why does a case like this matter? Because a wrist is not a small thing when it is the hand you write with, work with, and use for everything that fills an ordinary day. This was a serious, surgical injury with a long road back. Our job was to make sure the insurance company saw the whole person behind the medical chart, not a billing code.
Todd A. Travis and Jordan M. Travis handled this matter together. Here is what happened, what our client faced, and how we built it.
What Happened
Our client was driving through Fort Collins on an ordinary morning. As they neared Lemay Avenue and Haxton Drive, a driver pulled out of a nearby parking lot and failed to yield to oncoming traffic. The vehicles met head on at the front. Airbags deployed. Our client was still buckled into the seat when help arrived, in real pain, with an arm that was clearly hurt.
In Colorado, a driver leaving a parking lot has to yield to the traffic already on the road (C.R.S. § 42-4-704). That is the rule this driver broke. Our client did nothing wrong. They were simply in the wrong place when someone else decided not to wait.
Injuries and Medical Impact
Emergency imaging confirmed the hard version of the diagnosis. The main bone in the dominant wrist had shattered on impact into more than three pieces and had been driven up into the joint itself. A second bone near it had snapped off. This was not a clean break that a cast could fix. Left alone, this kind of injury can leave a person with a stiff, weak, painful wrist for good.
Paramedics gave strong pain medicine on the way to the hospital. In the emergency room, a clinician numbed the wrist, moved the broken bones back into rough position, and splinted the arm. A few days later, our client returned for detailed imaging that mapped every fragment, then went into the operating room. A hand surgeon opened the wrist, rebuilt the joint surface piece by piece, and held everything in place with hardware.
Then came the part no one sees. For nearly two months, our client could not put any weight through the dominant hand. Opening a jar. Carrying groceries. Washing. Cutting food. All of it suddenly took two hands they did not have, or a left hand they had to train from scratch. Sleep was hard. Focus was hard. About a month after surgery, hand therapy began, and it ran for two more months of manual therapy, range-of-motion work, and a home program to grind through alone, every day.
The work paid off. By six weeks after surgery, our client had carefully returned to the activities that mattered most. By the three-month checkup, they told the surgeon the wrist felt normal. A standard hand-function score therapists use, where a lower number means better function, fell from the low 40s to under 5. Grip strength on the injured hand climbed back to match the other side.
The Legal and Insurance Challenges
Fault was not the hard part here. A driver who pulls out of a parking lot and hits oncoming traffic has broken a clear Colorado rule (C.R.S. § 42-4-704). The hard part was money, and it came from two directions.
First, the ceiling. Every driver carries only so much insurance, and a claim against the at-fault driver can only reach the limits that driver actually bought. When those limits are modest and the injury is serious, the available coverage becomes the real battleground. Colorado is a hard place for this, with one of the worst underinsured-driver problems in the country.
Second, the discount. Our client did the work and recovered well, and insurers know how to turn a good recovery against you. Adjusters see wrist fractures every week. They do not always see the person behind the fracture, the two months of a one-handed life, the surgery, the daily therapy, the fear that the hand you depend on might never come all the way back. A strong finish does not erase the months it took to get there. Our job was to make the number reflect all of it.
How Rampart Built the Case
From the first days, we carried the parts our client and their family should not have had to carry. We took over every conversation with the at-fault driver’s insurance company, so the family could spend their energy on appointments and healing instead of phone calls and forms. We coordinated with the health insurance, the medical payments coverage, and the hospital billing office, so the bills did not become a second crisis stacked on top of the first. We gathered everything: every medical record, every imaging report, every therapy note, every bill. Then we built a complete picture of what this crash actually cost, in dollars and in daily life.
The damage to the vehicle was handled separately and early, so that piece did not hold up the injury claim. On the bodily injury side, we put the full package in front of the at-fault driver’s carrier and pushed for fair value, all the way to the limit of what was available. Two attorneys stayed on the file, Todd and Jordan, because a serious injury deserves more than a form letter.
The Result
The bodily injury claim resolved for the combined maximum policy limits available, a total of $150,000. What drove that outcome was not luck. It was complete documentation, a clear liability picture, and the human story told in full, backed by the willingness to keep pushing until the available coverage was on the table. Every case is different, and this result reflects the specific facts of this one. But the approach is the same every time. Build it, prove it, and do not let a serious injury be treated as a small one.
Colorado Injury Law Takeaway
If you drive in Colorado, a few things from this case are worth knowing.
Failure to yield from a parking lot is a clear violation. A driver about to enter a roadway from any place that is not itself a roadway, including a parking lot exit, has to yield to the traffic already there (C.R.S. § 42-4-704). When they do not and someone gets hurt, that broken rule is the backbone of the injury claim.
Policy limits can decide everything, and Colorado drivers are dangerously underinsured. In 2023, Colorado had the highest share of underinsured drivers in the nation, an estimated 49.7 percent, according to the Insurance Research Council. That means nearly half the drivers around you carry less coverage than a serious crash can cost. This is why your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage matters so much. Under Colorado law, that coverage can pay for injuries you are legally entitled to recover when the at-fault driver’s coverage runs out (C.R.S. § 10-4-609). If you have not checked your own limits lately, do it this week.
The clock is three years, and Colorado enforces it strictly. Car crash injury claims in Colorado generally must be filed within three years of the crash (C.R.S. § 13-80-101(1)(n)). Waiting lets evidence fade and witnesses scatter. Sooner is always better.
Fault can be split, and that split can cost you. Colorado follows a modified comparative fault rule. You can still recover as long as your share of the blame stays below the other driver’s, but any fault assigned to you cuts your recovery, and reaching the line ends it (C.R.S. § 13-21-111). Even in a clear case, insurers may try to pin some blame on you. That is one more reason not to talk to the other side’s adjuster alone.
Frequently Asked Questions
There is no set number. Value depends on how bad the fracture is, whether surgery was needed, how long recovery takes, lost income, and how much insurance coverage is actually available. We do not quote figures, because a real number only comes from the real facts. What we can tell you is that we build the claim around the whole person, not the medical bill alone.
This is common in Colorado, which has one of the highest rates of underinsured drivers in the country. When the at-fault driver’s limits cannot cover the harm, your own uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage may step in (C.R.S. § 10-4-609). Checking your UM/UIM limits before you ever need them is one of the smartest things a Colorado driver can do.
Generally three years from the date of the crash for injuries from a motor vehicle (C.R.S. § 13-80-101(1)(n)). There are narrow exceptions, and the deadline is enforced strictly, so it is best to talk to a lawyer early rather than close to the line.
Often, yes. A good recovery does not erase the surgery, the pain, the time lost, or the money spent getting there. Insurers sometimes use a strong recovery to argue the injury was minor. Careful documentation of what you actually went through is what answers that argument.
Talk to a Colorado Injury Lawyer
Were you or someone you love seriously hurt in a crash near Fort Collins or anywhere in Larimer County? You do not have to face the insurance company alone. Rampart Injury Lawyers handles the paperwork, the calls, and the pressure so you can focus on healing. Call (303) 766-8766 for a free, no-pressure conversation about your options. Our office is in Castle Rock, and we handle serious injury cases along the I-25 corridor and across Colorado.
A note on fees: contingency fee representation is not available in every type of case. In an injury case handled on a contingency fee, you may still be responsible for certain costs and expenses, and in some situations that can be true even if the case does not succeed. We will explain exactly how that works before you decide anything.
Disclaimers
Every case is different. Prior results do not guarantee, predict, or warrant a similar outcome in any future case. The result described on this page reflects the specific facts and circumstances of this particular matter.
This page is attorney advertising and is provided for general information only. It is not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Reading this page or contacting the firm does not make us your lawyers. Please do not send confidential information until an attorney-client relationship has been established in writing.
Rampart Injury Lawyers is a trade name of Travis Legal Offices, LLC. Todd A. Travis is the attorney responsible for the content of this page. Principal office: 333 Perry Street, Suite 203, Castle Rock, CO 80104. (303) 766-8766.
Contingency fee representation is not available in all matters. If your case is handled on a contingency fee basis, you may be responsible for certain costs and expenses regardless of the outcome.
