As the patron attempted to bring his vehicle to a complete stop inside the parking space, his foot accidentally pressed on the vehicle’s accelerator, causing it to quickly accelerate over the curb and across the sidewalk, pinning Carlos against the 7-Eleven storefront.
On September 20, 2017, Carlos (52) was waiting for his ride to work while standing outside of a Village of Bensenville 7-Eleven. A patron was attempting to park his vehicle in one of the store’s forward facing perpendicular parking spaces in front of where Carlos was standing. As the patron attempted to bring his vehicle to a complete stop inside the parking space, his foot accidentally pressed on the vehicle’s accelerator, causing it to quickly accelerate over the curb and across the sidewalk, pinning Carlos against the 7-Eleven storefront. He sustained severe crushing injuries resulting in bilateral above-the-knee amputations. Carlos alleges that 7-Eleven acted with utter indifference and/or conscious disregard for the safety of others by failing to install bollards in front of its stores and by not creating angled parking. There have been 7,525 storefront crashes at 7-Eleven stores and one at that particular 7-Eleven sixteen months prior. ACE, Mitsui Sumitomo, QBE, and Liberty paid for 7-Eleven Inc., Edgebrook Management Inc. and Rudy Lopez. This is the highest premises liability settlement and the highest settlement for an amputee in the Jury Verdict Reporter records. This matter was the subject of a story in the February 10, 2023 edition of the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin.