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The Future Of Track Days?

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He's clearly out for cash with all he is suing. But as riders we have to take responsibility for our own safety and actions. That said, if the track day organization made modifications to the track as they did here affecting the safety runoff area, I could see litigation being the result.
 
If I remember my bidness law correctly these suits are not you win/he loses, but each side has a percentage of fault. Based on the article and the video I'd say the rider is 90% at fault and the track is 10% at fault, maybe less. Even without the sand bags that runoff looks useless to a motorcycle.
 
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Kim left the rain out of the list of defendants.

After all, rain runoff predicated the need for the sandbags.
 
Lawsuits have happened several times here in Texas. A guy ran off turn one at Texas World Speedway and decided to go straight across the pasture, reenter the track on the south bowl and take the oval around to where he could rejoin the infield track between turn 3 and turn 4. He hit a PVC pipe sticking out of the ground at an angle and crashed. Similar injuries. He was over 100 yards off the track and still on the throttle when he hit the pipe. IIRC, he settled out of court for $8000. Texas Mini GP was also sued. It was thrown out of the initial court and an appeals court due to the multiple waivers signed by the plaintiff. No money was paid. Hopefully this one in California will also be thrown out.
 
Interesting article. I've never been to a track so I know nothing about them, but I would love to take my 650 Versys out to one some day. At minimum, I'd like to just hit some nice corners without having to worry about on coming traffic around a blind corner. Since my "experience" is still pretty low, I tend to take most turns at traffic lights in first gear. People always say "don't treat the street like its a race track" and I totally agree.

I watched the video in the article and it seems to me he could have kept going instead of running off. I just don't understand how he justifies asking for 15 million at first. He broke his leg and may not ride again. Its not like he will never walk again or worse. I agree with gixxerjasen that Kim seems to be only out for money. I wonder if his company is in need of money and he saw this as an opportunity. I'm not saying he crashed on purpose, but that after it happened, he "saw a chance" so to speak.
 
I suspect the lawsuit stems more from a way to fund his company start up
of that bike/pod/scooter thing he is trying to bring to market.

He was not near close enough for the pass he was claiming to be making from the video I saw and simply stood the bike up and ran off the track instead of
keeping a line and finishing the corner
 
This won't be the first or last track day lawsuit, I'm sure. Sadly, lawsuits are the cost of doing business in America.

Don't forget, though. This person hasn't WON a lawsuit; he's merely filed. He still has to convince a jury that the track is responsible, despite the waiver he signed. Despite impressions left by the infamous McDonald's Lawsuit, all juries aren't in a burning hurry to give away the defendant's money. We shall see what happens in court.
 
This isn't the first accident for Mr. Kim related to his startup company. According to this article LIT was ready to go into production four years ago, "with purchase commitments for three quarters of the first 1,000 units". Somehow they have yet to make that happen.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/06/03/change-agents-lit-motors-daniel-kim-c1/2151467/

I am interested in the physics of how he stiff-armed a falling Land Rover frame to keep from being crushed in the first accident.
 
tshelfer said:
Despite impressions left by the infamous McDonald's Lawsuit, all juries aren't in a burning hurry to give away the defendant's money. We shall see what happens in court.
Click to expand...

Good point. The award in the McDonald's coffee lawsuit hinged on a discovery that McDonalds was purposefully trying to hide several hundred similar suits, making the jury feel they were trying to trade profits for injuries. Similar to the infamous Ford memo. The final coffee award was not like the jury award, but agreed to in later arbitration.

Again, as a rider, should the sand bags have been removed? Probably. Would it have made a difference in this crash? Probably not. The plaintiff wouldn't want me on the jury.
 
notyou83 said:
Interesting article. I've never been to a track so I know nothing about them, but I would love to take my 650 Versys out to one some day. At minimum, I'd like to just hit some nice corners without having to worry about on coming traffic around a blind corner. Since my "experience" is still pretty low, I tend to take most turns at traffic lights in first gear. People always say "don't treat the street like its a race track" and I totally agree.
Click to expand...

Go! Do it! Don't worry about your experience. You will gain more experience in one day than you will in several years of riding. Hit up www.ridesmart.info and sign up for level 1. They have a great classroom teaching environment and in addition to learning new skills and improving existing skills you will have about the most fun you've ever had. I cannot encourage you enough to sign up and do it.
 
gixxerjasen said:
Go! Do it! Don't worry about your experience. You will gain more experience in one day than you will in several years of riding. Hit up www.ridesmart.info and sign up for level 1. They have a great classroom teaching environment and in addition to learning new skills and improving existing skills you will have about the most fun you've ever had. I cannot encourage you enough to sign up and do it.
Click to expand...

^^this 10x^^

Plus, the cost is reasonable if it's your first track day ever and you sign up with ridesmart. A couple of years ago I did it for $130 (I think) and that included one piece leathers. Well worth it. Sure would like to do another one...
 
ed29 said:
This isn't the first accident for Mr. Kim related to his startup company. According to this article LIT was ready to go into production four years ago, "with purchase commitments for three quarters of the first 1,000 units". Somehow they have yet to make that happen.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/06/03/change-agents-lit-motors-daniel-kim-c1/2151467/

I am interested in the physics of how he stiff-armed a falling Land Rover frame to keep from being crushed in the first accident.
Click to expand...

Kim's quote from the article; "In a motorcycle, you lean to steer"

Which explains a lot.
 
Unfortunately not just track-day organizations but regional racing clubs also feeling the litigation / insurance squeeze WMRRA: Loss Of Insurance Forces Cancellation Of Round One, Puts 2018 Season In Jeopardy

Sadly it seems it only takes one litigious participant to ruin a generally good thing, and often the degree of relative fault has little to do with the severity of the outcome on the track-riding community.

Not at all suggesting that negligent event operators should get a 'bye', but I'm not particularly confident that the current dispute resolution and 'accountability' systems are effecting proportional penalties and appropriate results for the affected parties (including the unfortunate injured riders).
 
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