› $150,000,000 verdict in personal injury case
A Mississippi coroner has become a strong advocate of tougher laws governing the operation of all-terrain vehicles because of the horrific injuries she has seen on the job. Carolyn Gillentine-Green, the Coroner of Lee County, Mississippi, told Jackson’s Clarion-Ledger that she supported any measures that would improve ATV safety in her state. “I’m a proponent for anything to make it safer,” Gillentine-Green told the paper.
All of the lawsuits involving the Yamaha Rhino that were filed in federal court have been brought together for pretrial litigation under U.S. District Judge Jennifer B. Coffman in the Western District of Kentucky. Judge Coffman will preside over five trials scheduled to open between October 2010 and January 2011.
The San Diego Padres confirmed last week that Donovan Tate, the team’s number one draft pick (and the third pick overall in the Major League Baseball draft) was seriously injured in an all-terrain vehicle crash near his home in Georgia.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and BRP U.S. Inc. of Sturtevant, Wisconsin announced a recall of approximately 2,400 Can-Am all-terrain vehicles. According to the CPSC, the dynamic power steering (DPS) can fail on the model year 2010 vehicles, resulting in the sudden loss of steering control, which exposes drivers to a significant risk of injury and death.
A 6-year-old Oklahoma boy died Wednesday evening when he lost control of the all-terrain vehicle he was driving, sending the ATV into a deadly rollover. Reports from throughout the state say that the young victim, Daniel Brock Smith-Maynard of Sand Springs, Okla. was driving the ATV on a homemade dirt track on his grandfather’s property in Tulsa when the accident occurred.
A 14-year-old boy from Mississippi was killed Saturday in Laurel Hill, Florida, while practicing at a track for a series of all-terrain-vehicle races. The teen was identified as Christian Pierce from Sauceier, Miss.
A 5-year-old South Carolina boy was killed in an all-terrain-vehicle accident on Sunday. According to a report in Greenwood, South Carolina’s Index Journal, Samuel Erik Quarles, a resident of Ware Shoals, died as a result of blunt force trauma to his chest after being thrown from the small ATV he was driving.
Last weekend was a deadly one for two young women who lost their lives in separate all-terrain vehicle accidents. One of the accidents, involving a teenage girl, occurred in Jonesborough, Tennessee. The other accident involved a woman who had just celebrated her 21st birthday and occurred about 200 miles west in the community of Hope Mills, North Carolina. Both of the accidents happened on Sunday night.
A Georgia teenager died and another one was seriously injured Saturday night in an all-terrain vehicle crash. The accident occurred in the southern part of rural Chattooga County, situated just south of Chattanooga, Tenn. and east of Ft. Payne, Ala.
The Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety (ACAHS) released some alarming numbers concerning all-terrain vehicle safety at a conference held near Perth, Western Australia last month. Numbers pulled from the country’s national farm injury data reveal that one Australian farmer or child dies each month as a result of injuries received in accidents involving quad bikes (ATVs).
