A patrolman is tragically killed in the line of duty and his estate can sue for $11 million. What am I missing or is this just ultra liberal Vermont acting up again? There must be more to this story.
yes, IJ has a bad habit of reporting so little of a story you have way more questions than answers when you are finished.
I don’t think they should bother with the story until they have enough facts for the story to make sense to the reader.
You get a D- on this one, IJ.
Blame the fact that they repost AP articles. I don’t think they write many of their own articles so much as they poach other people’s work. Not their fault I suppose… no real journalism going on.
Johnson was 39 years old and a 16 year veteran of the police force. He had layed spike strips across the highway and decided to park his patrol car adjacent to them and in the median. As the dumb
a-ss who was trying to outrun the cops approached, he saw the strips and swerved to avoid them striking Johnson who was standing next to his car. Unfortunate as it is, this was preventable. As an experienced officer, Johnson should have known anybody who is dumb enough to engage in a high speed chase with cops is also carless, negligent, and desperate. He should have forseen the possibility the idiot would swerve to avoid the strips, and parked his cruiser out of harms way. He was also well aware of the risks posed by his job and chose to assume those risks.
WC should be the only remedy for the estate. The primary source of recovery should be life insurance. Why should the state pay megabucks for the officer’s own negligence? There’s also the issue of assumption of risk.
What is the end goal — a bureaucratic rule change preventing officers from assuming risks? Whether it’s directing traffic, giving speeding tickets, or serving warrants on violent offenders, there is inherent risk in police work.
And I suppose that the trooper was negligent in getting up and going to work that morning too, had he not, perhaps this criminal would still be on the loose if not for death in the line of duty.
While you may not agree in the matter of the “Estate vs. The State” I hardly think that this officer should be deemed the “bad guy” here….
Understand completely. And of course the officer is not the bad guy. I think the majority of us have the utmost respect for law enforcement. I just think there are some occupations that are inherently dangerous and if you choose that line of work the family should not have the right to become wealthy off a terrible situation like this. Now, if the state were indeed negligent in causing the death, that’s definitely a differnt story.
A very poor story and a very bad attorney if we now have all of the story. It is interesting that they are sueing the company and not the state. Is this bad faith?
The defense on this will be very costly and next year everyone can ask, WHY IS MY INSURANCE PREMIUMS SO HIGH?
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A patrolman is tragically killed in the line of duty and his estate can sue for $11 million. What am I missing or is this just ultra liberal Vermont acting up again? There must be more to this story.
yes, IJ has a bad habit of reporting so little of a story you have way more questions than answers when you are finished.
I don’t think they should bother with the story until they have enough facts for the story to make sense to the reader.
You get a D- on this one, IJ.
Blame the fact that they repost AP articles. I don’t think they write many of their own articles so much as they poach other people’s work. Not their fault I suppose… no real journalism going on.
Johnson was 39 years old and a 16 year veteran of the police force. He had layed spike strips across the highway and decided to park his patrol car adjacent to them and in the median. As the dumb
a-ss who was trying to outrun the cops approached, he saw the strips and swerved to avoid them striking Johnson who was standing next to his car. Unfortunate as it is, this was preventable. As an experienced officer, Johnson should have known anybody who is dumb enough to engage in a high speed chase with cops is also carless, negligent, and desperate. He should have forseen the possibility the idiot would swerve to avoid the strips, and parked his cruiser out of harms way. He was also well aware of the risks posed by his job and chose to assume those risks.
WC should be the only remedy for the estate. The primary source of recovery should be life insurance. Why should the state pay megabucks for the officer’s own negligence? There’s also the issue of assumption of risk.
And they are going to sue for…..what exactly?
What is the end goal — a bureaucratic rule change preventing officers from assuming risks? Whether it’s directing traffic, giving speeding tickets, or serving warrants on violent offenders, there is inherent risk in police work.
And I suppose that the trooper was negligent in getting up and going to work that morning too, had he not, perhaps this criminal would still be on the loose if not for death in the line of duty.
While you may not agree in the matter of the “Estate vs. The State” I hardly think that this officer should be deemed the “bad guy” here….
Unless the driver engaged in the high speed chase was on state business how is the state responsible?
The driver is the one who should be sued. Oh I forgot, he has nothing so the estate would get nothing.
How a court would allow this litigation to proceed just does not make any “cents” to anyone except the attorney on teh case who gets a nice fee.
Understand completely. And of course the officer is not the bad guy. I think the majority of us have the utmost respect for law enforcement. I just think there are some occupations that are inherently dangerous and if you choose that line of work the family should not have the right to become wealthy off a terrible situation like this. Now, if the state were indeed negligent in causing the death, that’s definitely a differnt story.
Just one person’s opinion.
A very poor story and a very bad attorney if we now have all of the story. It is interesting that they are sueing the company and not the state. Is this bad faith?
The defense on this will be very costly and next year everyone can ask, WHY IS MY INSURANCE PREMIUMS SO HIGH?