Crazy Lawsuits: DUI Defendant Sues Car Manufacturer

Our Chicago Lawyers are often asked about some of the stranger DUI arrests that we have heard of, or some of the craziest personal injury lawsuits that we have seen.

Well, here’s the best example of both: a crazy personal injury lawsuit that also involved DUI.

In 1992, Karen Norman, after a night of drinking, accidentally backed her car down a boat ramp and into Galveston Bay, TX. Norman was unable to remove her automatic seat belt on her Honda and drowned. Norman’s estate sued Honda for making a seat belt that their daughter, whose blood alcohol level was measured at .17 shortly after the accident, couldn’t open underwater. Surprisingly enough, a jury found Honda seventy-five percent responsible for Karen’s death and awarded her estate $65 million. Not surprising was the ruling by the appeals court, which reversed the jury’s decision.

Tragic story, no doubt, and an even stranger personal injury lawsuit.