It can take only seconds for a car crash to turn your life upside down — and months or years of struggle to get things back on track. But for Sam Hernandez, perseverance and the right kind of legal help turned his journey to recovery into a life-altering opportunity.
Hernandez, 28, was on his way home from a friend’s house last year when his car was broadsided in a Pueblo intersection by another driver who ignored a stop light. The T-bone crash left Hernandez with lower back and knee injuries; even after weeks of rehabilitation, he was unable to perform all his previous duties working as a certified nursing assistant, including heavy lifting and moving equipment. “I tried to work through the pain as much as I could,” Hernandez recalls. “But it got to the point where I couldn’t work anymore.”
Facing the loss of his livelihood and mounting medical bills, Hernandez wondered how he was going to support his family. He turned to the law firm of Franklin D. Azar & Associates — an easy decision to make, he says, having grown up in Pueblo, watching the firm’s founder on television. “We all know who to call after a car wreck,” Hernandez says. “Frank Azar.”
The Azar firm connected Hernandez to doctors who could help him deal with pain management issues and financial specialists who helped address his debts. His attorneys obtained a settlement of $100,000 from the at-fault driver’s insurance company, and Hernandez resolved to invest in a new career for himself. “I’ve seen people get a lump sum, and then it’s gone,” he says. “You either invest it, or you’re going to lose it.”
His father had worked as a registered nurse but also had a side business in ice cream trucks; his mother was known as “The Porkchop Lady” because of the grilled meats she sold at a local chili festival. Hernandez decided to buy a food truck, so he could offer street tacos as well as his mom’s pork chops to hungry Puebloans.
In just a few months, the Hernandez food truck has become a familiar presence at various spots around Pueblo; Sam is also a regular at the Musso Farms farmer’s market. (To find where the truck will be next, consult the Porkchop Lady/Sam’s Street Tacos Facebook page.) Hernandez calls the truck “the best investment I ever made” and has been faring so well that he’s recently started another venture, raising French bulldogs, a wildly popular breed.
“Without Frank Azar, I wouldn’t have been able to provide for my family,” Hernandez says. “Frank Azar was able to help me turn this tragedy into a triumph.”
THE CAR ACCIDENT LAWYERS AT FDAZAR
For more than thirty years the attorneys at Franklin D. Azar & Associates have helped thousands of injured people obtain complete and timely compensation for their losses. Our proven track record and expertise have allowed us to grow into the largest personal-injury law firm in Colorado, with offices in Denver, Aurora, Thornton, Fort Collins, Greeley, Grand Junction, Colorado Springs, and Pueblo. If you’ve been injured in a bus, car, truck, or motorcycle accident, you may be entitled to compensation. Please call the car accident attorneys at FDAzar day or night for a free consultation and no-obligation evaluation of your case.
