Back in my law firm days, I became fairly well-informed about the rights of the handicapped. We did large tort cases and some products liability law. However, you don't discover much about plaintiffs as people from research. One way I learned more about what disabled people were thinking was by spending some time at online forums for those with disabilities. Two news stories yesterday led me to think about something I realized there.
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida (AP) — A paraplegic pursuing his love of auto racing struck and killed a worker picking up track debris during a race at the Daytona International Speedway, an accident that has raised questions about worker safety during races.
Roy H. Weaver III, 44, who worked at the speedway for seven years, was in the middle of turn No. 2 during a caution period when he was killed, track spokesman David Talley said Sunday.
The driver, Ray Paprota, 41, is the first known paraplegic to race in a national stock car series. He controlled his car with levers, buttons and knobs located on or around the steering wheel.
. . .Paprota, who hasn't had use of his legs since a 1984 auto accident, was trying to catch the main pack of cars after a two-car crash at the opposite end of the track brought out a yellow flag. He was driving at more than 100 mph.
Since the crash that killed Weaver is recent, it has not been established whether Paprota's reliance on a specially designed race car was a causal factor in the accident. But, what if it was?
The other incident, also involving harm to someone, occurred closer to home.
CLACKAMAS — Rescuers found the body of a missing deaf and blind man
near the Bagby Hot Springs area of the snow-covered Mt. Hood National
Forest on Saturday evening, authorities said.Monmouth resident Richard Thomas Melton, 26, probably died of hypothermia, said Jim Strovink, spokesman for the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office. Melton was dressed lightly — in shorts and a sweatshirt — when he went missing early Saturday morning.
The temperature in the area was about 35 degrees, with two feet of snow
on the ground. Strovink said investigators didn't suspect any foul play.Searchers found Melton's body just off the Bagby Hot Springs Trail,
between the Bagby Hot Springs tub area and the Bagby parking lot. The
trail is approximately a mile and a half long, and three feet wide and
has rugged terrain, with steep drop offs of 20 to 30 feet.
Article comments
1 - Shark
Presenting Today's Incredibly Profound Yet Meaningless Wrap-up!
"...sometimes people just have to accept their limitations." -- Dirty Harry
2 - Mac Diva
It works for me.