Settlement reached in California off-road race crash
Multiple news outlets have reported that a settlement has been reached in the high-profile crash during a California off-road truck race in the Mojave Desert that killed 8 spectators and injured 12 in 2010.
Attorney Katherine Harvey-Lee said a settlement of $5.8 million was reached during mediation with lawyers from the federal government. As part of the agreement, the Bureau of Land Management would pay $4.825 million and the race promoters would pay $1 million.
The shocking crash rocked the racing community and received national headlines after a truck crashed into the crowd after going over a jump on the track.
Officials from the BLM previous said that its staff failed to follow established procedures for permitting and monitoring the off-road race.
This is bad news for the off-road racing community. I feel horrible for the families, friends and by standers that witnessed this incident. this was nothing more than a horrible accident that could have been avoided by using some common sense. The fact is, off-road racing is dangerous and spectating can be equally as dangerous. Common sense is required when spectating and being too close to a race course with 6000lb trucks coming racing towards you at 60, 70 and sometimes greater than 80 mph. The BLM and racing promoters are going to consider whether racing on public lands is worth doing at all due to this judgment. I wouldn’t be surprised to see all racing events halted due to insurance constraints and liability concerns. By no means am I trying to detract from the incident or the fact that these families lost loved ones because of this accident, but only that it WAS an accident, and it could have happened with people spectating anyone jumping their truck, buggy, quad, or any other type of OHV. It happens all too often. This was simply an accident where people took the responsibility to be too close to the race track for the thrill and because of that accident, the state and promoters are paying for that lack of judgment or common sense.