› $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 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.
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).
Dion Seymour Jr., a 57-year-old resident of Orrington, Maine, died last month when the all-terrain vehicle he was driving in a remote area rolled over on top of him. According to the Bangor Daily News, Seymour, an avid outdoorsman, left his home at 9 am to go hunting in his favorite hunting area near Bald Mountain in eastern Maine. When Seymour did not return by 9 pm that evening, his wife called authorities to report him missing.
A 12-year old Arkansas boy was killed in an all-terrain vehicle accident on Sunday while conducting farm chores, Arkansas’ Hope Star reports. The victim, identified in the report as Garrett Malone, was driving a 2005 Polaris 500 ATV on his family’s farm in Guernsey, Arkansas when the accident occurred.
As the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) pushes for legislation that would ban young children from riding all-terrain vehicles in the Canadian province, another boy has been severely injured in an ATV accident. According to The Observer of Sarnia, Ontario, an 11-year-old boy from Warwick Township, located just northeast of Detroit and Windsor, was driving an ATV unsupervised on private property when the accident occurred.
