Don't answer this question out loud, but have you ever gotten into a car driven by a friend who had been drinking, smoking a joint, or both? If you answered yes, how old were you? Probably a teenager with a limited understanding of your mortality, right?
Chalk it up to youthful indiscretion and count your blessings that you're still alive to look back fondly on those "crazy" days.
West Chicago teenager Cameron Godee wasn't so lucky (Kane County Chronicle) when his 18-year-old friend Onofrio Lorusso drove his SUV into a tree, killing Godee. Two other passengers were hospitalized, one of them (Chelsea Mertz) sustaining a brain injury and a fractured jaw.
Lorusso, who had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.227 percent and traces of marijuana in his system, according to police reports, pleaded not guilty to several counts of aggravated drunk driving and reckless homicide for the June 14 car accident. That case is still pending.
Over in civil court, families of two of the three passengers have filed injury suits against Lorusso, his father of the same name and his father's business. It wasn't clear from the article how much Mertz's family is claiming in their suit, but Godee's family is seeking $6.175 million in its wrongful death suit.
How on earth do they expect a teenager to have more than $6 million to dole out? His Illinois injury lawyer would probably ask the same question if it wasn't for the co-defendants named in the suit.
Since Lorusso was driving the company car of the business owned by his father, the plaintiffs may have concluded that if found liable, his company's insurer would pay the tab.
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Survivor of fatal St. Charles crash sues driver (Daily Herald)
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Wrongful Death FAQ (FindLaw)
