Jul 10, 2006

Injured Fans Can't Sue

We've written in this space before about the lack of respect shown to racing fans.  Generally, facilities, food and other concessions fall way below those for other major sports like football, baseball or basketball.  But now respect for racing fans has hit a new low.  The North Carolina State Court of Appeals has ruled that four NASCAR fans injured when a pedestrian bridge at Lowe's Motor Speedway collapsed in 2000 cannot seek damages from the track.  Huh?

The three-judge panel ruled that the lawsuits, which were brought some four years after the incident occurred, came too long after the bridge was constructed.  Since the bridge was built in September 1995, the esteemed judges found that the suits were invalid since a state law limits product liability -- in this case the bridge was the "product" -- to six years after manufacture.  To which, we have to say, are you guys kidding?  Were the racing fans who were encouraged to cross the bridge informed that the bridge was over its limit and they were crossing it at their own risk?

In all more than 100 people were injured when an 80-foot section of the bridge fell some 25 feet onto a road in Concord, North Carolina, a suburb of Charlotte.  The fans were filing out of a NASCAR race at the facility when the bridge's steel cables, apparently weakened by corrosion caused by the use of improper building materials, gave way.  Officials at Lowe's Motor Speedway, an immaculate facility with an otherwise good safety record, have blamed Tindall, the construction company that built the bridge, for the incident.

"While the incident happened at our speedway, we were in no way responsible," said David Allen, the attorney who represented the racetrack. "The only negligence in this case was Tindall's."

However, in a case involving the incident that did go to trial in Virginia, the jury found that the speedway had not completed inspections of the bridge on a timely basis, thus breaching its agreement with the North Carolina Department of Transportation, which has authority over the roadway the bridge crossed.  The victim in that case received a $4 million award.