A motorcyclist in Los Angeles has been awarded $28 million after losing part of his leg when he was crushed beneath a fire engine at an intersection in East Hollywood. Robert Danbom was riding his 2005 Harley-Davidson Roadster through a green light on 2 September 2021 when a 65,000-pound fire truck, responding to what later proved to be a false alarm, entered the junction and struck him, throwing the bike into the air. His lawsuit alleged the crew failed to stop or check for cross traffic before proceeding into a busy intersection.

Danbom suffered a dislocated shoulder and such severe leg damage that it later had to be amputated below the knee. His lawyer, Filippo Marchino, said the verdict is believed to be the largest ever for a below-the-knee amputation case, though he criticised the city attorney's office for refusing to engage, claiming his client would have accepted roughly half the sum in settlement. Surveillance footage cited in court appeared to contradict the fire truck operator's claim that the vehicle had stopped before entering the junction. The case comes amid a sharp rise in Los Angeles settlement and jury payouts, which have grown more than 350% over the past decade, from around $64 million to $289 million last year.