THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 12, 1996 TAG: 9601120475
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
A woman who was paralyzed in a 1994 car crash has settled part of her lawsuit against the driver who hit her and his employer. The settlement is $2.35 million.
Still pending is a $25 million claim against General Motors for faulty seat belts and for the tendency of Chevrolet S-10 Blazers to roll over in crashes.
The victim, Tamara R. Hayden, was hurt when a Jeep Wrangler broadsided her Blazer at Culver Lane and Upton Drive in Ocean Lakes on April 27, 1994. She was wearing a seat belt but it popped open and she was thrown through an open back passenger window when her car rolled over several times.
The Blazer also hit a newspaper carrier who was folding papers at the corner.
He was not badly hurt.
Hayden, a 29-year-old mother of two boys, ages 2 and 8, was also a carrier for The Virginian-Pilot. The crash broke her spine.
``Obviously $2.3 million is a sizable settlement and it will help Mrs. Hayden and her family,'' said her attorney, J. Russell Fentress IV. ``However the combination of Mrs. Hayden's past medical bills, her future medical care and future lost wages makes this a case with huge damages.''
The other driver, Karl E. Schneider of Chesapeake, was convicted of reckless driving. The lawsuit says he was speeding and drove through a stop sign.
The settlement was against Schneider personally, his employer, Tectonic Distributing of Tidewater, and the parent company, Tectonic Distributing Inc.
Schneider was making a delivery for the company at the time of the crash.
His attorney declined to comment on the settlement.
The lawsuit, filed in Chesapeake Circuit Court, claims that General Motors designed and manufactured the Blazer's seat belt in a way that left it subject to inadvertent release during a rollover accident. GM no longer uses that kind of seat belt, Fentress said. Hayden's car was built in 1991.
Also, the lawsuit claims that the Blazer ``was inherently unstable and subject to rollover once put into a side skid, due to a combination of high center of gravity, narrow track width and high traction tires.''
The lawsuit says GM did not improve the Blazer's stability in 1991 despite an internal study showing the car was less stable than a Jeep Wrangler.
Hayden seeks $350,000 in punitive damages, the maximum allowed under Virginia law, and $25 million in compensatory damages.
General Motors' local attorney could not be reached for comment. No trial date has been set.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT TRAFFIC INJURIES LAWSUIT
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