Personal Injury Lawyers > Personal Injury Blog > Motorcycle Accidents > Parents of Teenager File Sacramento Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Motocross Racing Track

Personal Injury Blog

Parents of Teenager File Sacramento Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Motocross Racing Track

The parents of a Sacramento teenager who died after a motorcycle accident at a motocross track have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the track operators, as well as the ambulance company that they blame for their son’s death.

17-year-old Benjamin Turner died on June 27th on the motocross-racing track at the Marysville’s Beckworth Riverfront Park. He was thrown off his motorcycle, and fractured his neck. Although the track operators, E Street MX, had an ambulance stationed at the track, a local ambulance company was called after the accident to take Turner to the hospital. The ambulance at the track was owned by TLC Transportation, and the parents allege that the ambulance was insufficiently equipped to provide their son with the kind of emergency treatment he needed. He complained of being unable to breathe and when the ambulance staff couldn’t help him he had to be transported to Rideout Memorial Hospital. There were delays in transporting him to the facility, and by the time he reached the hospital, he was dead.

E Street MX has refused any claim arising out of the lawsuit, alleging that the boy had signed a release form before participating in the race, and that the responsibility was his because he did not exercise the kind of safety precautions that were necessary to avoid an accident. Accidents are part of the motocross racing experience, and it’s impossible to predict that a race will go exactly as planned, with no injuries or accidents taking place. Even with all precautions, a rider may still end up being thrown off his motorcycle, leaving him with serious injuries. It’s the responsibility of the track operator where the race is taking place to make sure that there are emergency medical aid facilities to give aid to an injured motorcycle rider. In Turner’s case, he spent precious minutes waiting for the on venue ambulance to help him, and when that failed, he waited longer for another local ambulance to arrive. These precious minutes wasted proved costly for him, leading to his death. If there had been provisions for proper medical equipment as well as other medical services on the ambulance stationed at the venue, Turner may have survived his fall. Instead he reached the hospital many minutes too late.

In a case involving death of a person due to negligence of another, the family of the victim may be able to bring a wrongful death lawsuit against the negligent party. A wrongful death lawsuit may be harder to quantify, because it includes several economic as well as non-economic losses that have to be included in any claims. Economic losses can include funeral expenses as well as other expenses, if applicable. Non-economic losses can include loss of companionship or loss of affection in the case of a child, or loss of consortium in the case of death of a spouse. Non-economic losses can be harder to place value on for obvious reasons. But past precedents or the amount of damages awarded by a jury to similar claims in the past can be taken by a wrongful death attorney as a basis for filing the claim.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of motorcycle accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

---