Landau Injury Law

The answer is “yes.”
With the recent verdict in a fatal bike crash case in Montgomery County, Triathlon Trial Lawyer Doug Landau points out that we can see that not only can both sides of a crash case lose, due to contributory negligence and assumption of the risk, but both sides can also win when there are negligent third parties involved.
In the Blacksburg Triathlon case, the bicyclist who died from injuries sustained in the June 2000 race won a verdict against the race sponsor and director. More recently, the driver he smashed into won a jury verdict when she was able to show that these same Defendants were negligent. The fatal crash occurred at one of only two intersections on the bike course in which the cyclist did not have the right of way. A Blacksburg policeman was stationed at the other intersection, which was controlled by a stoplight. However, there was no policeman to control traffic at this intersection.

The Athletes Lawyer Doug Landau also notes that there were no warning signs for motorists. The race sponsor failed to notify the university police of the triathlon. Since the intersection where the bike crash occurred is on the University campus, the college police would have been responsible for controlling traffic, if the race sponsor had given them advance notice of the triathlon’s course and time. Since the race sponsor and director had not given the University warning of the triathlon, the verdict for the cyclist’s family was against these two Defendants only, and not the University, their police or the driver.

This was the opposite result of the case handled by TriathlonTrialLawyer Doug Landau as the result of the high-speed crash on the bike course of the Eagleman Half Iron Man Triathlon. The injured triathlete brought a claim NOT against the race director or sponsors of the race. They were not negligent or “at fault” for the bike crash. Instead, the disabled biker sought damages from the driver of the car that smashed into him after the Defendant driver ignored the triathlon volunteers’ instructions, race signs, road conditions and pre-race notices. In that case, the experienced race director and sponsors had:
(1) given notice to the town and roadway authorities where the Blackwater race was to take place;
(2) closed intersections along the triathlon bike course;
(3) police and/or volunteers posted to monitor and control traffic on the triathlon race route;
(4) signs posted on the day of the sports event and even prior to this perennially sold-out Maryland athletic competition.

For more triathlon, bike crash and sports injury cases, especially coverage of the Eagleman Triathlon Half Iron Man bicycle car crash, go to the Triathlon Trial Lawyer’s website at www.TheAthletesLawyer.com.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 16th, 2008 at 9:21 pm and is filed under Auto Accidents, Bicycle Accidents, Injured Athletes, Negligence Cases, Sports Accidents, Triathlon Trial Lawyer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.