The civil trial has gone on for three weeks. The jury of seven woman and one man heard testimony from 41 witnesses.
Sand was with her family at a church picnic in 2007 where rides on the Rhino were part of the festivities. An accident caused the machine to tip over and dump several people. Sand died from injuries she suffered.
Sand’s parents, John and Tammie Sand, filed the suit against Yamaha, Clinton County Motor Sports and Let It Gro LLC, the company owned by the couple who hosted the picnic.
Attorney Mike Roberts wants the jury to award his clients $10 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages. Wrongful death claims are not subject to tort reform caps.
Roberts maintains Yamaha made a defective product that was prone to tipping over. He says 28 people died in Rhino accidents before Ellie. Yamaha contends the little girl would not have died that night if she had been wearing a helmet and seat belt. They place most of the blame on Nils McElroy, who was behind the wheel, because his stunt driving was “breathtakingly reckless.”
Roberts reminded the jury about all the evidence and testimony he presented regarding Yamaha’s knowledge about the tipping problem and the backwards fashion the giant manufacturer took to fix the problem.
He said the company sent a warning out first, then offered to put doors and hand holds on the vehicles. The last step was a redesign to fix stability issues.
“The machine is defective, it’s not even arguable. You don’t offer to fix something that’s not broken, you just don’t,” he said. “You don’t spend $63 million to fix products you’ve already sold. The machine is broken. This battle is not being waged on whether this machine was defective, the battle is what caused Ellie’s death.”
Defense attorney Paul Cereghini showed the jury a police report taken that fall night that described McElroy’s driving was “erratic, reckless, careless, negligent and aggressive.”
“Common sense tells us that Mr. McElroy’s driving of the vehicle was breathtakingly reckless, breathtakingly,” he said. “Five people, high speed, cutting the steering back and forth, people unbelted... common sense tell us what happened here.”
John Garvey, the attorney for Let It Gro, told the jurors his clients’ company wasn’t in any way connected to the events of that day.
If the jury finds Yamaha and other culpable, then the punitive damages portion of the trial begins.
Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4525 or dcallahan@coxohio.com.
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