Greensboro Jury Awards $15M in Motocross Accident Injury

FreshTopEnd
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12/20/2019 12:11pm Edited Date/Time 12/20/2019 12:53pm
dedi684 wrote:
im not sure i agree. If i run off the track and hit something thats my problem. If someone hits a dangerous object wouldnt the first...
im not sure i agree. If i run off the track and hit something thats my problem. If someone hits a dangerous object wouldnt the first thing you do is put some sort of protection over it for the safety of others?
To your last question, yes, and that generally is why the rules of evidence preclude using after incident fixes to prove that a condition was unreasonably risky.

If, however, someone contends that the pipe always was covered, and uses photos taken of the changes after incident as evidence that the pipe always was covered, then you've opened the door to the other side pouncing on that.
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CM_84
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12/20/2019 1:20pm
I hate to read about tracks getting sued.....but Motocross is dangerous enough, and all track owners need to expect riders to crash and thought needs to be put into what happens, what riders can hit and how emergency services get to the rider.
The fact that they then tried to cover it up says a lot.

It’s such a shitty situation, one kid has lost his leg and I assume another person / couple will lose their livelihood. I just hope other tracks learn something.

Remember car racing tracks regularly had ditches and trees lining the track, it was considered part of the risk. However eventually people cottoned on to the fact that it doesn’t need to be so dangerous.

The 2 thinks that frustrate me about safety at motocross tracks is mixed practices with A class 450s and 80s. And shit on the side of the track.
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Indy mxer
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12/20/2019 1:25pm
mx 219 wrote:
Waivers don't mean squat most of the time. I am looking to buy my own land and I am trying to work on an iron clad...
Waivers don't mean squat most of the time. I am looking to buy my own land and I am trying to work on an iron clad waiver for family and friends to sign just so I dont lose the property over a stupid incident. You can try your hardest, but you will never have an iron clad waiver. I do have some interesting wording that I think will go a long way to help me out from avoiding a lawsuit.


Once again, the owner/track workers actions of trying to cover it up are the worst thing about this situation. Makes them look worse than fessing up.
hamncheeze wrote:
Very true. When I was racing bicycles we used to sign waivers at every sign-on. One of my friends who is a lawyer would inevitably say...
Very true. When I was racing bicycles we used to sign waivers at every sign-on. One of my friends who is a lawyer would inevitably say "this waiver isn't worth the paper it's printed on" as he dutifully signed it so he could race.
Waivers aren't iron clad at all on their own. But they are another line of defense when coupled with other evidence. Like I said, we end up with the parent signing twice. We were told by our insurance company to do this, so we do.

The Shop

dkg
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12/20/2019 1:35pm Edited Date/Time 12/20/2019 1:40pm
Here's maybe a way to understand assumption of risk in motocross (note that assumption of risk and comparative negligence rules vary state by state). Natural features...
Here's maybe a way to understand assumption of risk in motocross (note that assumption of risk and comparative negligence rules vary state by state).

Natural features of a motocross or off road track produce risks of injury may be assumed by the participant who elects to participate (at least in some states).

Man-made features and improvements will always implicate a duty of care by the person who makes and maintains the improvements so as not to increase the natural risk of the sport. In this case, the exposed culvert is not a natural risk of motocross.

Look around your track and note things that in your opinion should be changed for safety reasons; every one of those is a potential breach of the duty of care and can be argued as such as a basis of liability. Rather than argue with that reality, recognize it and address those controllable issues.

Some states (California for example) will allow releases (release = contractual assumption of risk, not assumption of risk as a matter of law) to waive rights to recover for injuries from natural conditions and also the simple negligence of the track owner, including negligence in any emergency rescue or treatment. This often is omitted from releases (and would in states where negligence cannot be waived).

The other thing to note is that juries have a lot to digest during trial, often confusing, and decisions sometimes come from clues the various witnesses give, and sometimes sheer likability of witnesses or experts. Testifying that you did X when a video shows up later that you hadn't is a pretty strong driver of jury reaction. I don't think the evidence that they moved tires to cover the culvert would have been admitted otherwise, but they opened the door by claiming that it was covered before the accident. I doubt the defense ever recovered.
Great summary. Reading your OP seems like there was a lot of craziness in the case. The complete lack of any settlement discussion pre-trial, to the absence of the purported release and finally the cherry on top of a very rotten Sunday, the defense claiming the culvert was protected when it wasn't. Lots of things to get a jury motivated in favor of the Plaintiff (I don't mean to imply the jury would know about settlement discussion, but when discovery revealed the culvert wasn't covered and the track was saying it was, somebody should have seen the writing on the wall that this might not turn out well for the defense.)

It's sad to see these things occurring, both from the side of the injured rider to the track potentially being put out of business. Obviously unsafe conditions created by the track owner brings to mind the playing of a game of Russian Roulette. It isn't going to have a good outcome.
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Jack_Wagon
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12/20/2019 4:57pm Edited Date/Time 12/20/2019 4:59pm
Unfortunately this lawsuit is only the tip of the iceberg for Durhamtown. I know of three more lawsuits they're up against that are worse than this. One involving a local doctor that was killed when the owner of Durhamtown pushed a tree over and it hit the man as he was riding on this same track
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Natester551v
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12/20/2019 5:01pm
CM_84 wrote:
I hate to read about tracks getting sued.....but Motocross is dangerous enough, and all track owners need to expect riders to crash and thought needs to...
I hate to read about tracks getting sued.....but Motocross is dangerous enough, and all track owners need to expect riders to crash and thought needs to be put into what happens, what riders can hit and how emergency services get to the rider.
The fact that they then tried to cover it up says a lot.

It’s such a shitty situation, one kid has lost his leg and I assume another person / couple will lose their livelihood. I just hope other tracks learn something.

Remember car racing tracks regularly had ditches and trees lining the track, it was considered part of the risk. However eventually people cottoned on to the fact that it doesn’t need to be so dangerous.

The 2 thinks that frustrate me about safety at motocross tracks is mixed practices with A class 450s and 80s. And shit on the side of the track.
The kid didn't lose his leg...just FYI
Hoks
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12/20/2019 5:22pm
CM_84 wrote:
I hate to read about tracks getting sued.....but Motocross is dangerous enough, and all track owners need to expect riders to crash and thought needs to...
I hate to read about tracks getting sued.....but Motocross is dangerous enough, and all track owners need to expect riders to crash and thought needs to be put into what happens, what riders can hit and how emergency services get to the rider.
The fact that they then tried to cover it up says a lot.

It’s such a shitty situation, one kid has lost his leg and I assume another person / couple will lose their livelihood. I just hope other tracks learn something.

Remember car racing tracks regularly had ditches and trees lining the track, it was considered part of the risk. However eventually people cottoned on to the fact that it doesn’t need to be so dangerous.

The 2 thinks that frustrate me about safety at motocross tracks is mixed practices with A class 450s and 80s. And shit on the side of the track.
The kid didn't lose his leg...just FYI
But it’s likely that he will never have real functionality beyond walking again.

Imagine being 14 and your whole life ahead of you and then being told you’ll never be able to run or play sports again. Might seem like nothing but imagine little things like stairs, getting in and out of cars, just pivoting around the garage, etc., and it will only get worse with age.

All it could’ve taken was somebody to look at this culvert and use a little common sense that at high speeds it could act as a knife. It’s sad to see so many people say that it’s “inherent risk” for motocross. Imagine if it was his head?Hell imagine if you brought your son somewhere, paid money to ride, and walked away with almost a million in medical bills because the owner of the track you just paid to ride cut corners on safety somewhere.

Motocross is dangerous enough..
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DanDunes818
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12/20/2019 6:28pm
Jack_Wagon wrote:
Unfortunately this lawsuit is only the tip of the iceberg for Durhamtown. I know of three more lawsuits they're up against that are worse than this...
Unfortunately this lawsuit is only the tip of the iceberg for Durhamtown. I know of three more lawsuits they're up against that are worse than this. One involving a local doctor that was killed when the owner of Durhamtown pushed a tree over and it hit the man as he was riding on this same track
Holly shit, that's insane! Talk about bad timing. I'm sorry but that's a lawsuit I can 100% get behind the plaintiffs on if true.

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CM_84
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12/20/2019 6:56pm
The kid didn't lose his leg...just FYI
My mistake....skimmed over it and missed the very important “nearly” part of the sentence.
The one thing I have noticed is that the payouts are massive in the US. They often seem way out of proportion.
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Johnny Ringo
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12/20/2019 7:40pm
I’m usually signing up to ride my dirtbike on a track, not to navigate through a junkyard
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Natester551v
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12/20/2019 7:43pm
The kid didn't lose his leg...just FYI
CM_84 wrote:
My mistake....skimmed over it and missed the very important “nearly” part of the sentence. The one thing I have noticed is that the payouts are massive...
My mistake....skimmed over it and missed the very important “nearly” part of the sentence.
The one thing I have noticed is that the payouts are massive in the US. They often seem way out of proportion.
Agreed...you'd never see that in Europe (or Oz). It's insane....
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CG118
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12/20/2019 7:53pm
FTE. What would happen under New Zealand’s ACC?
wwoberg
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12/20/2019 8:04pm
Up to about 5 years ago, my son and I, with other friends would make a 3-4 day spring and fall camping trip to Durhamtown. The place is huge and has all types of variety. We slowly started seeing it cater to side x sides and the "cooler in the seat" type crowd. Weekends were overcrowded and they opened a tiki bar up at night and things usually got out of hand. We stop going. Haven't been back.
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Jack_Wagon
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12/20/2019 8:35pm
Jack_Wagon wrote:
Unfortunately this lawsuit is only the tip of the iceberg for Durhamtown. I know of three more lawsuits they're up against that are worse than this...
Unfortunately this lawsuit is only the tip of the iceberg for Durhamtown. I know of three more lawsuits they're up against that are worse than this. One involving a local doctor that was killed when the owner of Durhamtown pushed a tree over and it hit the man as he was riding on this same track
Holly shit, that's insane! Talk about bad timing. I'm sorry but that's a lawsuit I can 100% get behind the plaintiffs on if true.


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kage173
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12/21/2019 12:13am
Sounds like the $15 mm came from them lying in court and tampering with evidence.

If they had provided the signed waiver and not lied they probably would've had a $800k medical bill.
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Talisker
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12/21/2019 12:28am
Horrible for both parties involved. I don’t feel 15m needed to be rewarded. Most people nowadays aren’t smart enough to invest that kind of money. The kid and parents will blow through that in no time....Stamp it!!!””
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rohleder644
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12/21/2019 7:12am
Terrible deal all the way around. As a parent, what a god damn tragedy. However, I’d like to see us use some more common sense as a society. We all operate with this normalcy bias. The assumption that everything’s going to be ok. We strap in to roller coasters that are literally designed to make you feel unsafe, and are shocked when something goes awry. We all need to look around a little harder and decide whether or not something seems reasonably safe, rather than assume it is. I try to do this all the time with my girls. They’re constantly jumping off shit and hurting themselves and being gnarly, but I at least try to mitigate unnecessary injury due to factors I deem unsafe. There’s some parks we don’t play at because they’ve got unnecessarily unsafe equipment. There’s pools we avoid because they obviously aren’t focused on safety. I think it’s our responsibility to point out unsafe conditions. If the facility operator chooses to do nothing about, find a new place. Don’t carry on and then assign blame elsewhere when shit goes south.
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scott_nz
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12/21/2019 10:07am Edited Date/Time 12/21/2019 1:01pm
CG118 wrote:
FTE. What would happen under New Zealand’s ACC?
Not sure what FTE would know about nz acc law but All his medical bills would be covered and if he was working in nz he would get 80% of any wage income he was getting till he could get back to work full time , once you have accepted acc Payment (which funds the ambulance anyway) you can not sue for Personal injury

However if it was a private bike park, worksafe (Our government osh enforcer) could investigate and prosecute you for negligence if they deemed the pipe was dangerous and you leaving it uncovered was at least reckless ,

dimetime
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12/21/2019 10:37am Edited Date/Time 12/21/2019 10:38am
Some of you people are just selfish monsters. I don't give one fuck about a piece of shit who commits perjury in order to cover their own disgusting negligence. Fuck that guy all day long.

And on another note, the fact that some of you are covering for this shitbag is disgusting. This sack of crap put his fucking facility at risk. He did it. No one else. He didn't give a fuck about making sure his facility was safe for use. If he didn't care about the long term viability of his property why in the fuck are you blaming the kid who will forever suffer the consequenses of this selfish, greedy pile of human garbage. Fuckface ruined his riding place no one else.

By the way, dipshit was knocking down trees on an open riding day? And some of you jack offs can't see that the owners clearly don't give a fuck about their customers. There seems to be a fairly deep seeded "fuck them" attitude in the management of that place. This is a fucking pattern people.

Finally, l'm not a lawyer but l've dealt with a shit ton of them and there is never a waiver that will protect from willfull negligence. You can never indemnify yourself from your own self inflicted idiocy.
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lostboy819
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12/21/2019 11:06am
Ok what does everyone feel about Sarah Whitmore suing for her injuries ? She was a professional motocross racer who should have refused to ride the Chinese Zero X bike that broke into pieces while she was riding it in a stunt show. Does she not have the responsibility to account for her own safety ? It is terrible she got hurt but she of all people would know what she was riding was a piece of junk but did it anyway and paid the price. No one wants to be responsible for their own safety, look at these parents who put their kid on a bike at a very young age and then sue when the kid gets hurt. A lot of the reason tracks close and the sport is shrinking is because of the people in the sport.


https://www.vitalmx.com/forums/Moto-Related,20/Sarah-whitmore,1353280
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Ramrod
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12/21/2019 12:29pm
dimetime wrote:
Some of you people are just selfish monsters. I don't give one fuck about a piece of shit who commits perjury in order to cover their...
Some of you people are just selfish monsters. I don't give one fuck about a piece of shit who commits perjury in order to cover their own disgusting negligence. Fuck that guy all day long.

And on another note, the fact that some of you are covering for this shitbag is disgusting. This sack of crap put his fucking facility at risk. He did it. No one else. He didn't give a fuck about making sure his facility was safe for use. If he didn't care about the long term viability of his property why in the fuck are you blaming the kid who will forever suffer the consequenses of this selfish, greedy pile of human garbage. Fuckface ruined his riding place no one else.

By the way, dipshit was knocking down trees on an open riding day? And some of you jack offs can't see that the owners clearly don't give a fuck about their customers. There seems to be a fairly deep seeded "fuck them" attitude in the management of that place. This is a fucking pattern people.

Finally, l'm not a lawyer but l've dealt with a shit ton of them and there is never a waiver that will protect from willfull negligence. You can never indemnify yourself from your own self inflicted idiocy.
Hey bud, I’m not condoning the really bad decisions the owner has made but as a person who had been there before, to say the owner doesn’t care about their customers is not correct. The place is huge, there are signs everywhere with rules, trail directions, emergency call boxes, routine track maintenance and lots of friendly people. Obviously there was a vulnerable area that injured a kid and that really sucks.
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12/21/2019 3:05pm
I haven’t raced there in 20 years, but the last time I signed up at Mammoth Motocross, I was required to list my health insurance provider on the entry form. Sure, someone could lie about it, but I’m sure that wouldn’t help the ambulance chaser’s cause in court. If I owned a track, I would incorporate this on my sign up forms. If you don’t have medical insurance, you have no business on a dirt bike.
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monti248
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12/21/2019 3:22pm
The difference between what "We the rider" and what we think and want versus the "Parent" on what they think are two different things.

As far as tracks. This happens time and time again and nothing will change it beside better track safety. Just like OSHA. See a potential hazard and correct it and prevent these types of things from happening again.
FreshTopEnd
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12/21/2019 3:54pm
CG118 wrote:
FTE. What would happen under New Zealand’s ACC?
Beats me. I think property damage is pretty straightforward, but I don't know about personal injury. I incline to a sound no fault tort system, and support for injured/disabled people, just because it reduces the legal and insurance administrative cost associated with personal injury tort litigation in the states.

Lots of folks disagree. And NF does nothing about business/contract/labor/ip litigation; that all will go on until the second coming because people rubbing elbows in life or business always will throw out honest disputes, some wackball fights, or crooks at play.
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VetMX.com
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12/21/2019 5:15pm
This is why I am the only one riding my track on my land. Their insurance company will sue whether they want it or not.
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brocster
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12/21/2019 6:25pm Edited Date/Time 12/21/2019 6:28pm
People suing tracks are not always what it seems. You can have the best medical insurance in the world, but if they feel someone else may be responsible your injuries may not be covered. Hence, the rider suing the track to attempt to get out from under a $700k medical bill that the insurance didn’t cover. Having medical insurance is not always the catch all and they are getting smarter about people who ride dirt bikes knowing there is a pretty good chance someone else, more times than not could be responsible to stick the medical bill on.

I would venture to say that this was the case here and in the case of Sarah Whitmore.
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WhipMeister
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12/21/2019 7:33pm
Lying about the hay bales probably cost them $13 mil. Doubt their insurance policy has that much coverage.
APLMAN99
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12/21/2019 7:57pm
brocster wrote:
People suing tracks are not always what it seems. You can have the best medical insurance in the world, but if they feel someone else may...
People suing tracks are not always what it seems. You can have the best medical insurance in the world, but if they feel someone else may be responsible your injuries may not be covered. Hence, the rider suing the track to attempt to get out from under a $700k medical bill that the insurance didn’t cover. Having medical insurance is not always the catch all and they are getting smarter about people who ride dirt bikes knowing there is a pretty good chance someone else, more times than not could be responsible to stick the medical bill on.

I would venture to say that this was the case here and in the case of Sarah Whitmore.
Your health insurance would pay your bills even if someone else were at fault.

Then they would subrogate and attempt to recover their expenses from the at fault party.

The majority of the monies here are not medical expenses already incurred.
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lostboy819
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12/21/2019 10:03pm
Lying about the hay bales probably cost them $13 mil. Doubt their insurance policy has that much coverage.
Yep,the cover up is usually worse than the crime.
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