Race Car Crash Injuries in California
This past week, thousands of people saw in real-time how Nascar driver Ryan Newman had a horrific crash on the Daytona 500 speedway.
Videos of the 200 mph crash have been played and replayed. Luckily, Newman is recuperating well in the hospital, and photos of him leaving the hospital with his two young daughters are now circulating in the news. Experts are saying that some of the safety improvements made to the cars after Dale Earnhardt's crash death in 2001 might have saved Ryan Newman's life.
The Ryan Newman Daytona 500 crash has prompted several people to ask me how a similar case might work in California. Specifically, how does California law treat dangerous sporting events like Nascar's Daytona 500?
We've discussed this issue on these pages before. The seminal case discussing injuries occurring during aggressive sporting events was decided by the California Supreme Court in 1992, Knight v. Jewett, 3 Cal.4th 296.
In Knight, the plaintiff suffered a serious hand injury during a pick-up game of touch-football. The Court, in ruling for the defendant, provided a lengthy analysis of the primary and secondary assumption of risk doctrines that has confused first year law students ever since. The Court noted that the competitive nature of sporting activities is bound to cause injuries. Even when the conduct crosses the bounds of acceptable rules of the game and internal sanctions might apply, the Court declined to fundamentally alter the rules of the game by imposing tort liability, unless the conduct is so reckless as to be totally outside the range of ordinary activity involved in the sport.
Applied to race car events, most would probably agree that racing machines at speeds exceeding 200 mph with twists and turns around a track qualifies as an aggressive sporting event. As such, race car drivers almost certainly assume the risk of serious injuries or even death when they start their engines.
What about spectators? What happens if a crash happens and fans in the crowd get hurt by crash debris? California Courts have decided this issue before too.
One key case is Celli v. Sports Car Club of America, 29 Cal.App.3d 511 (1972). In that case, spectators in the "pit" who were injured by flying crash debris sued the race owners for negligence and premises liability. The Court ruled in favor of the injured spectators, confirming that the owners and operators of the race track still owed a duty of reasonable care to spectators sitting in the pit. Interestingly, the Court ruled that spectators who sit so close are not contributorily negligent because they sat so close to the action.
Racing is a dangerous sport, and sometimes crashes cause serious injuries to both drivers and spectators. Let's hope Ryan Newman continues on his path to recovery and all Nascar drivers will be safe.
For questions about your Los Angeles or other California car accident or other negligence case, the Rabbi Lawyer is ready to assist, 24/6.
