Williams Grove Speedway

A car rips through Turn 3 at Williams Grove Speedway. On Monday, the Monroe Twp. facility was found innocent of negligence in a 2008 accident that left former Sprint Car driver John Westbrook a quadriplegic.

CARLISLE: A jury's decision in a lawsuit against Williams Grove Speedway led to a sigh of relief from racetrack officials across the country.

Former Sprint Car driver John Westbrook sued Williams Grove Speedway for negligence in a 2008 accident that left him a quadriplegic.

Westbrook flipped over the Turn 1 guardrail and went down a steep dropoff leading to an access road. In his suit, he and attorney David Inscho, claimed that if a catch fence was in place, the driver would not have suffered his injuries.

Inscho argued that because the date line and witness line were not filled in on the waiver-release Westbrook signed the night of his accident, it was not a valid document.

On Monday, the jury disagreed. Eight men and four women deliberated for three hours before coming back with a verdict that said the waiver-release signed by Westbrook was valid and that the speedway was not liable.

Williams Grove Speedway management was unavailable for comment. Defense attorney Brigid Alford, however, gave a brief statement exiting the courtroom.

"On behalf of my client, we feel that the evidence fully supported their verdict," Alford said.

The decision in this case is huge. It reinforces that when a driver signs a waiver before going into the speedway, it is binding.

"I think this is good for the racing industry," said Alan Kreitzer, who is part of the ownership team at Lincoln Speedway.

"It says that the waiver-release was recognized as being valid. I'm just glad it came back the way it did."

There was reason to worry.

If Westbrook would have been awarded a big settlement, it could have changed the way speedways have been doing business. Especially since Williams Grove is one of the most famous dirt tracks in the country.

The waiver-release process might have been abolished across the racing landscape. Insurance premiums and perceived safety requirements might have been too much of a financial burden to handle, which could have led to facilities closing.

"It was certainly concerning," Kreitzer said. "But the folks at Williams Grove told me that they thought things were being handled properly, and it sounds like they were."

Westbrook was seeking just short of a half-million dollars in medical expenses already paid and $6 million to $21 million in future expenses. He was also looking for $1.6 million to $6 million for future earnings and pain and suffering.

According to Todd Fisher, owner of Susquehanna Speedway Park in Newberrytown, this was a no-win situation for Westbrook, Williams Grove Speedway or the racing industry as a whole.

"We as racetracks try to protect drivers the best we can," Fisher said. "However, we can't protect a driver in every situation.

"There are so many circumstances that can occur. It's bad when a driver gets hurt, but we do the best we can. If we could foresee every circumstance, we would do everything we could to protect them."