Snowmobiler hits Army Blackhawk, suing the Army

| March 11, 2024

 

A snowmobiling lawyer may be setting new records for chutzpa. Or should I call him a lawer?

Jeff Smith, a lawer up Massachusetts way, was speeding along on his snowmobile – after dark – after a couple of beers – when he hit the tail of a Blackhawk helicopter on night training parked on a disused – wait for it – airstrip.  He’s suing.

The March 2019 crash almost cost Smith his life and is now the subject of a federal lawsuit by the Massachusetts lawyer. He is demanding $9.5 million in damages from the government, money he says is needed to cover his medical expenses and lost wages, as well as hold the military responsible for the crash.

Smith’s lawyers in the yearslong court case argue that the crew of the Black Hawk helicopter that flew down from New York’s Fort Drum for night training was negligent for parking a camouflaged 64-foot (19.5-meter) aircraft on a rarely used airfield also used by snowmobilers.

“The Army internal investigation showed pretty clearly that the crew knew that they were landing right before or right after on an active snowmobile trail,” he said. “What bad could happen there? You know, helicopter on a snowmobile trail where folks go fast.”   Army Times

How fast, you say?  Smith says he was doing about 65mph. Just a side note – the maximum speed limit on paved roads in good conditions in Mass-a-chu-setts (apologies to “Boston Legal”) is 65mph.  So this clown is doing that speed on a snow trail at night and thinks it’s the Army’s fault for parking a nasty ol’ chopper on the AIRFIELD he wants to snowmobile on. Wonder if anyone mentioned “excessive speed” or “over-driving headlights”  yet. They will.

He already got a settlement from the owners of the airfield (any money that they now ban snowmobiles?) and is going for the bonus aforementioned $9.5 mill. Hey, if you don’t see an ambulance to chase….

 

Yet another h/t to Jeff LPH for this one.

Category: "Teh Stoopid"

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A Proud Infidel®™

That’s quite a “Bernathian” lawsuit if you ask me.

OAE CPO USN Ret

Dammit I came here to say something in the same vein. To wit: The Ghost of Dan Bernath is furiously stroking it over this lawsuit.

Odie

The link says subscriber exclusive story, and I’m cheap. It did let me read to the point of there being a rise that snowmobiles like to go full throttle. I’m guessing the “rise” is big enough to catch air?

I’m guessing the conversation in his head was… launch speed, weee, wtf is…crash, ouch.

Hack Stone

Possible design flaw? Sounds like he has the grounds for a class action lawsuit. 🙄

5JC

He was also taking prescription meds on top of the booze, his son had seen him driving drunk and worst of all, he had seen the aircraft parked there earlier in the day, although he tried to recant that statement later for obvious reasons.

Definitely a stupid game for stupid prizes event.

My, My, My
A Proud Infidel®️™️

OOH, and he’s a small-town Real Estate Attorney as well? Likes Fireball shots, isn’t that the T-bird/MD20/20 of liquor?

CCO

I thought how’d he get on the airfield; then I saw disused in front of airfield. Wait; he admitted doing 65 at night (but it’s in the open cause airstrip) so what could he hit?
BUT
After “two beers” and he got a settlement?

rgr769

Two beers, my ass. Everyone who has been drinking and driving always says they only had two beers. In my experience of reading traffic collision and DUI reports, admitting one had two beers means the person drank at least four.

26Limabeans

Yes, it is always the square of the number admitted to.

Sapper3307

“Just one, the first one and the last one.”
PMO drunk tank

Hate_me

If it’s all from the same keg, they all count as one.

5JC

His BAC at the hospital was just under the legal limit. This means that it’s highly likely He was DUI at the time of the crash.

UpNorth

I wonder what His actual BAC was. He may not have been DUI but if his BAC was just below that level, he was likely still DWI (Driving While Impaired). In most states, the level for DUI is .08, below that is DWI.

Animal

My next question after getting the “only two” answer was,
“How many is two?” The answer was always more than two. I did arrest one man who was obviously intoxicated. I asked him how many beers he had drank and he replied, “just one”. I expressed my incredulity to his answer and he said, “Oh yes, just one, but it was very tall and never empty”.

Anonymous

Most of a fifth…
comment image

MustangCPT

See? Jameson’s is NOT a good wingman!

IMG_0035
Anonymous

Big money! Big money!

Last edited 8 months ago by Anonymous
MIRanger

Hopefully the Army actually puts a competent JAG on this one, and they not only win the case against him but in turn charge him the full cost of repairs and lost wages for the damage to the aircraft.
Heck they might even decide to be generous and go after him and his lot, to dissuade people from using emergency airfields and training sights for their own playground! Then see if the State of Massachusetts wants to tack on operating a dangerous piece of equipment while impaired. What about attempted vehicular homicide because he put those Soldiers lives at risk by speeding through their training area!

rgr769

The aircraft won’t have any lost wages or lost income, but he should be countersued for the cost of repairing the aircraft. He was certainly negligent in driving 65 mph on a dark snow-covered trail on even an unused runway. Would he sue if he ran into a moose? Prolly so, as he is a smarmy lawer.

Odie

Competency in today’s military? I see what you did there.

26Limabeans

“camouflaged 64-foot (19.5-meter) aircraft”

So it must have been painted white?
Coast Guard? UN?

Hack Stone

Congratulations, you have successfully passed the Camouflage Training Exercise.

Anna Puma

Mass-holes gotta mass-hole.

Just imagine if the tail-rotor had been spinning. Mass-hole sprayed everywhere, EPA called in for a Super Fund clean-up, and counseling for the PTSD the Blackhawk is now suffering.

ArmyATC

What a clown. When I cross a rarely used street I still look both ways.

KoB

Hell, I look both ways when I’m going into a round-a-bout and a one way street.

“FIRST (ht2 CW) thing we do is…kill the lawyers.” The Bard of Avon

26Limabeans

Don’t forget to look behind you.

Sapper3307

Drunken sled riders can be fun. My old NG unit did NVG drivers training on a private road, no sleds. So everybody rode on it of course. Suddenly they are surround by armed folks in unform and NVGs. Most thought it was the state police doing a trailside DWI stop. People running off into woods and stuff.
Always fun.

Hack Stone

You can sue some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you can’t reach the Sisters Airport landing strip without enough fuel.

Anonymous

An airfield with an aircraft parked on it is somehow “unused” and open to rippin’ across blindly so pay me is dipstick’s logic.

Charles

Damn Army. Parking a helicopter on an airfield!

President Elect Toxic Deplorable Racist SAH Neande

Who knew?

26Limabeans

Not even a traffic cone.

A Proud Infidel®™

NO ROAD GUARDS either? Probably nobody even had a reflective PT Belt on as well!

Hack Stone

The Road Guards were on a more pressing matter, policing the area for cigarette butts.

MustangCPT

Hey! That FOD ain’t gonna police itself!

rgr769

Yes, nothing worse for rotor blades than picking up some cig butts, unless it’s AK-47 rounds.

Sailorcurt

Little confused by this story.

It was private property, but the Army just decided it was OK to land helicopters there?

It was private property, but it was a “well marked snowmobile trail”?

Maybe private property means something different in New England than it does where I own property, but if it was my privately owned property, I think I’d have a serious issue with either and both of the above two statements.

jeff LPH 3 63-66

I think that he lost an arm or a leg which would keep him from being an Arm ee Leg

RetiredDevilDoc8404

You go where the aircraft live and complain when there is one ON AN AIRFIELD, you drive recklessly/drunk, admit you knew the helo was there, but change your story when you think you can get a payday. I bet for an encore this genius will sue because water is wet… Play stupid drunk games, win stupid prizes AND a ride in an ambulance with all the amenities ON YOU…

SFC D

December, 1985. It’s a cold, quiet night in the tiny town I grew up in. I’d stopped for beer on the way home, that turned into 6 or 7, I leave the local tavern and head home. The city marshall is parked not far away, quietly watching. I’d already decided to walk home, so I stop and chat with Festus a bit, mainly so he knows I’m not driving. Suddenly from the north end of town, there’s the scream of a Polaris Centurion wound out, probably in excess of 100mph, straight down all 7 blocks of main street. We both kinda look at each other, he says “Damn, Polaris builds a hell of a snowbuggy. You be careful on the way home”. Gotta love small towns.

Graybeard

If Bernasty had a son…

Hack Stone

He would be known as a son of a disbarred lawer.