assumption of risk

[botsquad]

the family and estate of greg moore has filed a lawsuit, naming CART and the Calif Speedway as defendants.

how much can they really expect, considering how dangerous racing is.

perhaps its just an insurance grab.
too bad.

CART will no doubt settle and avoid a trial.

[Liz]

As one who dances with lawyers for a living, I predicted this would happen almost as soon as the flags were lowered to half staff.

Calling it "an insurance grab" is perhaps a bit over the top, though, as (I am guessing) the insurance company probably denied some part of their claim due to the fact that anybody racing in CART knew or should have known that it was highly possible he could be seriously injured or killed doing it, and therefore Greg's was not an "accidental death" in the strictest sense - he had assumed that risk by getting into the car. (Depends on what your policy says, so yet again "Read Your Policy.") This may be a way of setting precedent at law as to what their liability actually is, which is not a bad thing.

And of course everyone knows (as has been discussed here before) that California Speedway was poorly designed for open wheel racing safety and members of their organization are on record as saying that it was no use changing the safety configuration from NASCAR standard for "only one race". So this may also be a way to force the superspeedways to rethink their policies vis-a-vis open wheel racing. Which is another good thing.

[Liz]

UPDATE: Having now talked with some California lawyers, I will add to the above that the waiver everyone signs in order to get up close to the racing (in the pits or in the cars) stating that you will not sue because you know what you are doing is dangerous) has in the past always been upheld by California courts as binding. Therefore the only grounds for this suit are those seeking what is called "Injunctive Relief" which is to force the track(s) to make safety changes in response to the determination that their negligence caused the respective deaths.