Friday follow-up – snowmobile case

You may recall March 11 I wrote about a lawyer name of Jeff Smith, who managed to run his snowmobile into a parked Army Blackhawk. He sued the government, saying it was at fault for parking the chopper on a known snowmobile trail (through a listed airport) without warnings, glow sticks, whatever. Well, he (meaning probably his lawyers) just won a cool $3,300,000 because he judge ruled the government was 60% responsible. Huh?

Smith, a Massachusetts lawyer, had asked for $9.5 million in damages to cover his medical expenses and lost wages and to hold the military responsible for the crash.

U.S. District Judge Mark Mastroianni blamed both parties for the March 2019 crash in his ruling Monday, but said the government was 60% responsible for parking the helicopter on a snowmobile trail.

Smith also sued the owner of Albert Farms airfield in Worthington, accusing them of both giving permission to snowmobilers to use the trail and the Black Hawk crew to land in the same area. He settled with the farm owner for an undisclosed sum.

Now that last one at least makes some sense…given the incompatibility between snowmobilers’ heads and helicopter parts (see pic above), I can see where mixing the two is a bad idea.

“The court finds the government breached its duty of care in failing to take any steps to protect against the obvious risk of a camouflaged helicopter parked on an active snowmobile trail, in a somewhat wooded area, as darkness set,” Mastroianni wrote. “The helicopter and area where it was parked were not illuminated or marked in any way.”

Uh, judge? It’s still a listed airfield. FAA lists it as MA88 near Worthington, MA. Just because it isn’t used much is no excuse. You can sled or toboggan down a rarely used road, too, but if you do hit an oncoming car, you are the problem. Or were.

The government also argued that the court lacked jurisdiction and that the crew members weren’t told that they were landing on a snowmobile trail. The government also pushed back on claims that it could have prevented the accident and said the crew was not required to illuminate the helicopter.

Any of you pilot types ever required to light up your craft on the ground in training? Buehler? Buehler?

The government also attempted to cast blame on Smith, claiming he was driving his sled more than 65 mph (105 kph) and that he had taken both prescription drugs and drank two beers before his ride.

Jeff Smith drove in the dark alongside farm fields and forests before going over a ridge. His headlights reflected off “something,” he said, but Smith only knew it was a helicopter after the crash.

Note that he came over a ridge at 65mph (fyi, that’s the max HIGHWAY speed in the PDRM) onto the helicopter. He wouldn’t have seen markers or glow sticks anyway with a ridge in between him and the chopper. At roughly 90 feet per second, after a couple of beers, I wonder what his reaction time would be? Oh, and did we mention he was wearing TINTED goggles, further reducing his vision?

Not wishing Smith ill, but to me this sounds entirely self-induced and I would think the government would be entirely in the right to appeal this judgement.

Category: "Teh Stoopid"