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Laguna Seca: SCRAMP Prevails in Lawsuit Filed by Injured Motorcycle Hobbyist.
Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 3:39 pm
by toratora
http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/blo ... 356fe.html
Marielle Argueza wrote:Jan 9, 2018
Since 2016, the Sports Car Racing Association of the Monterey Peninsula has been the subject of at least two lawsuits filed by amateur riders who've been injured in motorcycle crashes during "track day" events. The events, held by the company Keigwins, allow nonprofessional riders to experience racetracks used by the pros.
Both riders allege that on the day they crashed at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, SCRAMP was negligent and could've have taken more precautions to prevent the accidents.
For Daniel Kim, who filed a complaint against SCRAMP, Mazda and Monterey County, in April 2016, doing more would have meant SCRAMP officials removing sandbags from a sandy-off track area where Kim crashed his motorcycle.
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A video provided by Andrew Swartz, the attorney representing SCRAMP, show Kim attempting to slow down on Turn 5 of the racetrack, and veering to the right—and into a dirt patch and then a series of sandbags. Upon hitting the sandbags, Kim was tossed off his bike with the vehicle falling on him at least once.
Kim broke several bones, including his femur. In his lawsuit, he contended the sandbags presented an unsafe and unnecessary hazard.
Swartz made the case that SCRAMP was not negligent, and that racing at high speeds, especially as an amateur, presents a risk of grisly accidents. By email Swartz writes, "Mr. Kim was one of the faster, if not the fastest, amateur riding on the day of his accident."
On Dec. 19, Monterey County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wills sided with SCRAMP.
In his order, Wills explained that because Kim had signed a waiver before riding, the court would rule specifically on whether there was a "triable issue of fact"—whether the presence or absence of the sandbags and a French drain where Kim crashed provided a basis to move forward with a ruling on whether SCRAMP had indeed been negligent.
The presence of the sandbags, Wills wrote, was not an act of negligence, but the opposite: "The act of placing the sandbags was intended to reduce the risk of injury."
With one lawsuit down, Swartz hopes that the court's ruling on the other case, filed by Mariusz Dziurzynski in March of 2017, are "similar."
Kim's attorney, Robert J. Nelson, says Kim is planning to appeal the court's decision and "looking forward to trying a case against Keigwin's," which is set to take pace in May.