Parents of girl killed in car crash sue hosts of party where driver drankWhat a truckload of shit.
STUART, Fla. (Court TV) — A car crash that left two teens dead and another in prison continues to afflict this small coastal town nearly three years after the fatal accident.
Stephen Bromstrup, 16, allegedly downed several beers that he sneaked into a June 17, 2002, pool party that Barbara and John O'Brien threw for their 14-year-old daughter.
After the party, Bromstrup and two friends, Daniel Downes and Matthew Gordon, climbed into a 1988 Pontiac Firebird and took off through the O'Briens' upscale neighborhood, according to police.
Prosecutors say Bromstrup raced through a stop sign at 70 miles an hour and plowed into a Cadillac.
Two passengers in the Cadillac, Sarah Stone, 14, and Alexandra Quaroni, 13, were killed; another, Jennifer McKinney, 14, was thrown through the rear window and suffered a broken pelvis and fractured skull.
According to police, Bromstrup had a blood-alcohol level of 0.041 percent when he skidded 237 feet into an intersection at about 11:30 p.m. Although the level is below what Florida law considers impaired, Bromstrup was a minor and thus violated the law. Florida law presumes a person is impaired with a 0.08 percent blood alcohol level.
Bromstrup pleaded no contest to vehicular homicide and other related charges and was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2003.
Now, the parents of Sarah Stone are suing the hosts of the cookout for wrongful death.
The complaint, filed in the 19th Judicial Circuit in Martin County, claims the O'Briens broke the law because they did not 'take reasonable steps to prevent the possession or consumption of alcoholic beverages by a minor' at the open party they hosted for their daughter.
The complaint alleges Daniel Downes illegally purchased a 12-pack of beer at A&M Discount Beverage, which he then shared with Bromstrup before and after the cookout.
The complaint also states Bromstrup sped through the 25-mph zone, where the accident occurred at the urging of Downes, who told him, 'Do it again.' The provocation referred to the high speed that they had reached on the way to the party.
Your daughter has a pool party. Some of her idiot friends get all tanked up before coming to the party. They may or may not have snuck a couple beers when no one was looking. Then they leave the party, down some more booze, wreck the car and end up killing some of your daughters' friends. This is your fault how?
You didn't know they had illegally purchased beer. You didn't know they had drank before, during or after the party, and you definitely didn't give them any while they were there.
The only reason they're getting sued is because of the 'upscale neighborhood' they live in. The parents of the drunk firebird driving morons aren't the ones getting sued here. Can't get blood from a turnip, right?
The quicky-mart they boys bought beer from isn't getting sued here either. No, they'll most likely get more money from the 'upscale' folks than a quicky-mart could ever dish out.
HEY! SARAH STONE'S PARENTS! CAN YOU HEAR ME?!!! GOOD!
I GOT NEWS FOR YOU. IT WASN'T THE O'BRIENS' FAULT. IT WAS THE BOYS WHO DRANK THE BEER AND DROVE THE CAR. BLAME THEM. SUE THEIR PARENTS. THEY OBVIOUSLY LACK THE SKILLS TO RAISE ANYTHING BUT IDIOT SONS.
Fucking morons.
Update:
O'Brien said she encountered underage drinking three times during the party. She was outraged each time, she said, and disciplined the offenders.
Shortly after the party began, O'Brien said she spotted one of the teens, Mario Giardono, shoving a fifth of gin into a bag in the kitchen. She grabbed it out of his hand.
"I knew it was booze and I was so mad," O'Brien told the jury. "I wanted to turn it over his head, and I dumped it."
In testimony lasting much of the day, O'Brien read from her deposition taken after the accident. She said she had a zero-tolerance policy on underage drinking and that whenever she discovered anyone at the party violating that rule, she dumped the alcohol.
"I poured it out," O'Brien said. "That was the punishment."
Okay, so the O'Briens did know there was some drinking going on. But they didn't condone it, provide for it, and definitely didn't allow it.
Sounds like they acted responsibly to me. Some will say she should have called the parents of each of the kids involved, or even the cops. Again I cry Fuck That!. She shouldn't have to deal with that every time the daughter has a get-together. This modern day bullshit of displacing responsibility needs a big wake-up call.
Again I say, when the hell are people going to start taking some responsibility for their own actions instead of blaming everyone but themselves?
Good gawd-amighty.
2 comments:
the lawyers are responsible for this. if the lawyer had to put up his money and if he lost the case had to give it to whomever they sued most of these cases would never come to court. whats the lawyer or his client have to lose...nothing.
That's exactly what I would like to see.
Let the lawyer put up a bond. If they win, they get their payoff. If not, they lose their ass.
Do away with percentages for class action suits. I don't think class action suits should be done away with, but it needs to be reworked. Lawyers are the only ones to make any money from them.
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