Statement from Rich Taylor (LACR Lawsuit)

In the irony of all ironies, it looks like the only reason to have the berm so tall is to keep bikes from shooting off the track and hitting bikes on the other lane. Make a feature for safety and it ends up hurting someone. 

Motocross is dangerous, whoda thunk it? 

Kid Rock just bought a case of EKS goggles and is heading out to the back forty...

For those few who are having a tough time understanding the difference between a cliff and slope see below.  Most of us know a retaining wall would have had to been built for it to be a cliff, but I guess some don't understand that?  Dirt will not stack and remain vertical unless compacted and trenched, but it wasn't...

More importantly, and like mentioned previously several times, the slope is irrelevant when you lose control and whiskey throttle off something in the wrong direction.  This was a huge mistake made by the rider, and not the fault of the track owner.

There is absolutely no difference if the kid were to lose control of his bike and fly off the huge booter below and land in the flats.  Same exact cause and same exact outcome.

It's ok to disagree. The actions each take is THEIR personal choice. At times, it's useless to continue a disagreement when it's obvious each has their own opinion.  It seems the thought of personal choice has now been labeled as Cancel Culture. Just an old guys opinion, nothing more.

My point is all of the personal injury attorneys already know about motocross tracks being potential targets. These lawsuits are nothing new, there are plenty of jury verdicts out there to establish a market. In cases that settle the terms of the settlement agreement are usually confidential, mainly to protect the defendant/insurance company. That is why Cooksey had to edit his original video to remove mention of the settlement amount that he shouldn't have known in the first place.

I do find it interesting that I'm seeing a bunch of ads for EKS on this site now.  

Do you understand you don't have to have permanent disability to sue? Seems like a bunch of members don't.

100% correct.

Adds are often based on what You are searching and or talking about on a website .   The software sees people talking about the brand and pushes adds . The concept is to help make that little push to move somebody to make a purchase of something they have been looking for and talking about.  So it could just be that, or Rich could be spending more on adds.  There are 2 threads that I know of on here that are still going. And no big amounts of posts edited or deleted by ML. 

Of all the media , I would say that this place has given the most neutral report on what happened. With less opinion injected. This thread could have been deleted . ML could have avoided getting a statement from Rich.  Perhaps the friendship's  have kept this story from coming out sooner. But in my opinion this place has helped provide the clearest picture of what happened.  Between the statements ML posted, and the photos and info provided by members.  It is a private site and they could have clicked it all away if they wanted to.  

 When I get news, I like to just learn the facts.  And decide how I feel about it. How it may impact me, etc.  And I feel Like ML posted the facts that he could confirm. I don't need the person giving me the info to  tell me that they think it is good or bad news. Opinion has no place in news. So much news these days is more entertainment than real news.

Ron Burgundy would be ashamed of what news has become.   

Yeah I'll give ML credit for not scrubbing the entire conversation surrounding this. I'm sure that's what his advertiser would prefer even if he hasn't directly said so. 

I agree 100%. I was annoyed the way he first came into the conversation, but I know he was likely hounded to delete the first thread and he never did. I gotta give credit where due. 

Surprised nobody has brought up the fact that the kid was racing C class. Makes it even worse. Not saying there should be corners where you are punished this harshly for being out of control, HOWEVER, when you consider the fact that the kid is a C rider and crashed in a turn where nobody else did coupled with the fact that you can see this corner from a mile away. Lawsuit is fucking despicable. 

I read the facts. Whenever someone(Rich in this case) sues , the INSURANCE companies always pays. You are not allowed to say insurance companies in court or anything to do with the suit because the INSURANCE companies have gotten the courts to forbid it!  They rule the courts, they have a strong lobby.

(and oh, I didn't say anyone died, I am saying that IF your kid died...)

I understand that. What I don’t understand is how you’re going to ride practice, race a couple of motors, and then get sketchy, hurt yourself, and then say it’s the tracks fault and now I’m suing. His injuries weren’t bad enough to keep him off the bike, so why sue the track? If he gets sketchy on another track and crashes and gets hurt is he going to sue them too, those would be my thoughts if I was a track owner and saw them pulling up to ride. What about Mike Alessi going over a blind finish jump at Glen Helen, not seeing the guy and hitting him which resulted in him getting paralyzed, is that guy suing Glen Helen because of the blind jump or suing Mike for not avoiding him? What’s the difference with Taylor suing and someone hitting a kicker on a jump, getting hurt, and suing the track?

Take the tinfoil hat off man. There are a couple ACTUAL lawyers in this thread who've shed light in a very productive and logical way. 

You are a complete and utter moron if you say "I didn't even realize XXX was there?"  That's what track walks and practice are for, genius.  If you skipped either or both of said things then again, you are a moron.  once your tire touches dirt you have made the deicicion that whatever risks a track poses you find them acceptable, period.  No one put a gun to your kid's head and made him ride.............Typical entitled bitch ass behavior.  We all have bills expecting someone else tp pay yours because you were to stupid to do your due diligence is pathetic and should be embarrassing.  You should be tarred & feathered the next time you show up at a track...  

So what I've learned after reading 16 pages of back and forth on this.

If you are a C class rider and run out of talent, and even admit to such, it is NOT your fault if you crash and someone else should pay for your treatment and set you up for life.

God help us all, there is no need to be personally responsible for our actions any longer. We have created a perfect world where it's someone else's fault even when we FAFO.

LACR was closed in the early 2020’s after the insurance company dropped them. It is true that they were able to reopen, only after getting a new insurance policy. Richard’s statement about his friend riding there is purposely misleading. I am so glad this was brought to light as it affects the racing and the off road community. I have been riding at LACR since the early 90’s and my children now ride there as well. Greed pure and simple. I think he hoped this would be swept under the rug.

I think Kooksey hit all time lows with this one. Not backing RT, just facts.

Look guys. This is like a political discussion. Not convincing anyone on either side. We know what 95% think in both arguments and nothing's going to change the other 5%. 

Time to let it go.

I just came home from coaching my daughter's 10u softball game. Im very well reminded why i love our sport so much more than any other stick or ball sports. Hearing parents and coaches get their .02 cents in is alot like this post at this point though, so please let it die lol. 4 more games and ill have coached the last softball games i ever will. Get back to riding, watching, or googling moto stats in moms basement. Anything other than this bs. 

LMMFAO!

Not sure I’d agree with that. Although I’m not an avid viewer of Cooksey’s content ,I do occasionally watch.  I was aware of this case and some of the rumors circulating,and was somewhat shocked that it was pretty much being kept under wraps. 
Although Cooksey did get some of the details incorrect,the  body of his account was basically accurate and at least it brought the lawsuit into the light ( as it should be) 

That being said ,I thought his video ripping DC and MX Sports awhile back was pretty harsh. Although I may feel that way because I was tight with Dave Sr back in the day and have known the Coombs for 50 years,lol. 

Child Rock can’t even spell EKS…

That may be the case but, at least he isn't identifying as an English literature professor and attempting to force you to address him as such...

All-time high actually…good on him for exposing this..

And most everything he talked about in his first video ended up being correct..

How could you sue someone knowing their own child passed away in a moto accident. Cant get my head around that

Coaching my daughters 10u all girls flag football team this past season was one of the best experiences of my life. Without youth coaches stepping up, there is no league. With all due respect, I simply stated facts. Rich did sue LACR, and they did close around the time the lawsuit was settled. Someone who raced at local socal tracks since the age of 10 and watching them close one by one; should know better. This whole incident has been swept under the rug; they settled in 2021. I wonder how many riders would have purchased EKS products? I wonder how much of that settlement went into growing his business. I say don’t let it die and let the riding consumers decide.

Something tells me there's more to come...check youtube

Fair enough.

I like coaching the kids and seeing them light up when they get to use a newly developed skill during game play.

Its the ahole parents and coaches that pretend like every game is little league world series with scholarships on the line. Literally yelling at kids for the dumbest stuff. I don't tolerate it well when kids are being defeated by people living vicariously through them preaching things they cant even do. I feel the same way at moto tracks. Ive offered my shiney new 450 to a dad who never rode that was mother f'ing his 7 year old daughter on a pw for not making it through 450 peg deep ruts. I told him to show her on my bike or stfu. He wouldn't. Its much more rare at tracks tho. Its every single game we play on the ball field. Its so bad cops have showed multiple times (not to my particular games). One coach followed a 16 year old female umpire to her car to cuss her out. No good. Glad i wasnt there.