ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, March 8, 1996                  TAG: 9603080078
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK 

JOGGER WINS $35,000 IN SUIT UNINSURED DRIVER STRUCK RUNNER

A Roanoke jury has awarded $35,000 to a woman who was struck by a car while jogging.

Angelette Bennett, who was preparing for a 10-mile race, was jogging from the YMCA on her lunch break Sept. 21, 1994, when she was hit from behind by a car on Walnut Avenue in Vinton.

Because the driver of the car, Chris Craft, had no insurance, Bennett sought to collect against her own insurance company under an uninsured motorist policy.

Her attorney, Charles Allen of Roanoke, argued that Craft had ample room to avoid the jogger, but that he did not pull over toward the center of the road as he approached her. Craft was not speeding at the time of the accident.

Attorney Kevin Blair, representing Allstate Corp., argued that Bennett also was negligent because she was running with traffic instead of facing it and did not keep a proper lookout. Bennett, who is in her 20s, said she was jogging on the wrong side of the road to avoid an area where men had heckled her in the past.

She suffered cuts, bruises and an injured ankle.

Circuit Judge Diane Strickland ruled that both parties were negligent, but instructed the jury to decide if Bennett's negligence was enough to bar her from recovering damages. After deliberating about four hours Wednesday, the jury awarded Bennett $35,000. The accident cost her $10,000 in medical bills and $3,000 in lost wages.

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