Question: What Is The Liability If Someone Is Injured During A Speed Contest/Street Racing?
Answer: Any persons involved in the racing/speed contest can be found negligent and thus have unlimited exposure to persons they injure.
The racing of motor vehicles on a public highway is negligence and the drivers who engage in speed contests are each liable for injuries to third persons regardless of which of the racing vehicles inflicted the injury and even though there is no contact between the racing vehicles. It will be for a jury to decide whose actions led to what injuries under Indiana’s comparative fault analysis. If the racing was the cause of the accident and injuries sustained. It is normally a jury question to decide if there were a causal connection between the racing, accident, and injuries to a plaintiff.
It needs to be noted that one who does participate in setting in motion such hazardous conduct cannot thereafter turn his liability off like a light switch. Again, it is important to remember that one who participates in setting such hazardous conduct in motion cannot later be heard to say: ‘Oh! I withdrew before harm resulted even though no one else was aware of my withdrawal. It would be a reasonable probability that the excitement and stimulus created by this race of several miles had not dissipated nor, in fact terminated at all, in the fraction of a minute in time between the act of passing and the accident. The state of mind of the participants was material. We cannot gauge the state of mind to the point of saying that the stimulus or intent had ended. The evidence warrants a finding that it did continue. It would be for the jury to decide if the racing were the cause of the accident.’ The law in the State of Indiana is clear that, “A person may not engage in a motor vehicle speed contest on a highway or street.” Ind. Code Ann. § 9-21-6-1 (West).