Last year, a large number of race fans made the pilgrimage to the California 200, a 50-mile race that took place roughly 100 miles from Los Angeles on the outskirts of the Mojave Desert. During the race, driver Brent Sloppy reportedly lost control of his vehicle, and it landed in a crowd of spectators after bounding through the air.
In total, eight people died and around 10 others were injured. Many of the families of the surviving victims have filed personal injury lawsuits against the event organizers, the federal government and the affiliated promoters. These individuals say the section of the track where the incident occurred featured none of the safety measures that should have been in place for a potentially dangerous event.
"You could touch it if you wanted to. It's part of the excitement," Niky Carmikle, the girlfriend of one of the victims, told The Associated Press in 2010. "There's always that risk factor, but you just don't expect that it will happen to you."
The lawsuit is taking on added complications as it was held on land owned by the Bureau of Land Management. The agency is likely to be the target of some of the lawsuits, and has been on record as saying it failed to ensure the event was held up to its standards, Southern California Public Radio reports.
After looking to find an attorney for the job, plaintiffs are now seeking unspecified damages that could find the agency and those affiliated with the event paying for emotional, financial and medical damages these individuals incurred.
When families experience a severe personal injury or wrongful death in the state of California, they can turn to experienced lawyer referral services that know personal injury lawers in the injured parties' area. Whether they need Los Angeles criminal lawyers or Orange County criminal lawyers, this type of service can contact qualified personnel who work in most branches of law. By turning to these organizations, individuals can find a professional that has experience helping families secure the money from insurance corporations, private companies and government agencies that is rightly owed to them.
