On Saturday twenty-eight spectators were injured when a last lap crash sent the No. 32 car of Kyle Larson into the catchfence at Daytona International Speedway.
Several of those fans are planning to sue Daytona International Speedway.
Three of the fans have met with the personal injury firm of Morgan and Morgan while four more have made appointments. Their injuries range from broken leg to head injury.
John Morgan, founder of Morgan and Morgan spoke with the Daytona Beach News Journal.
“When you go to a sporting event, if you are underneath the basket that’s where your seat is and Shaquille O’Neal comes after a loose ball and dislocates your shoulder, you sat there knowing that was a risk,” Morgan said.
“This case here is going to be different,” Morgan said, “because the fans who were sitting behind that fencing did not really assume a risk like you would think, because they were assured that fence could weather anything coming through it.”
The issue will be how strong and how high the fence should be, Morgan said. He said NASCAR probably would ask the fence manufacturer to contribute financially to any payouts the Speedway must make.
This is not the first time that the Speedway has faced a lawsuit.
Luis Gracia, an attorney with Port Orange personal injury firm Rue, Ziffra and Caldwell, said his firm has filed lawsuits against the Speedway before. One was a slip and fall, and the other was a woman who was run down by a golf cart. The cases were settled before going to trial.
The ticket has this disclaimer, according to Speedway spokesman Andrew Booth: “The holder of this ticket expressly assumes all risk incident to the event, whether occurring prior to, during or subsequent to the actual event, and agrees that all participants, sanctioning bodies, and all employees, agents, officers, and directors of Daytona International Speedway, its affiliates and subsidiaries, are hereby released from any and all claims arising from the event, including claims of negligence.”
Unsurprisingly and more-so unfortunately we have not heard the last of this story.
