Crash victim awarded $2.4 million following collisions in PoCo, Pitt Meadows

A construction worker and entrepreneur who was left suffering chronic pain following two car crashes has been awarded approximately $2.4 million following a recent B.C. Supreme Court judgment.

Cornel-Mihai Alesu was at Lougheed Highway and Jervis Street in Port Coquitlam when a white SUV came from the left lane and hit his vehicle, sending it airborne and over the curb.

Alesu testified that he hit his head on the seatbelt post and struck his knee on the dashboard.

The October 2019 crash left Alesu with a mild traumatic brain injury as well as neck and back pain, sensitivity to lightness and sound, anxiety, depression, difficulty concentrating, and fatigue.

Approximately nine months later, Alesu was driving in a parking lot at Harris Road and Lougheed Highway in Pitt Meadows when another driver cut across the lot and into Alesu’s lane.

The minivan emerged from between two parked cars and smashed into Alesu’s vehicle, which was later determined to be a write-off.

Alesu testified the second collision aggravated his symptoms.

He suffered soft tissue injuries and a concussion, according to his family doctor. The doctor described Alesu as being totally disabled from his previous work and might not be able to return.

Other doctors also offered the opinion that Alesu’s chronic pain wouldn’t necessarily improve.

“There is no evidence that would indicate a real and substantial possibility that the plaintiff will ever return to work,” wrote Justice Julia Lawn.

Alesu was born in Romania but came to Canada after his father swam across the Danube River to the former Yugoslavia.

Besides working in construction, Alesu started a bread making business in Romania and was also a partner in a company that imported sodium sulfide from China for use in nuclear reactors.

Prior to the crash, he had taken over the home-renovation business Eurocraft Housing Ltd.

In calculating lost income, Lawn noted that Alesu earned $142,500 in his last year in the workforce. She also determined Alesu’s lost future income to be $1,345,589. The judgment also accounted for loss of housekeeping capacity, future care, and non-pecuniary damages.

The defendants contended the settlement should be between $235,000 and $309,000.