I was Vice President of K and K Insurance for some years so perhaps I
can speak with some authority on the racing insurance situation.
Each race organization NORMALLY purchases two types of insusrance for a
racing event.
1 Spectator liability is usually a minimum of one million and most times
is more like 5 million. This coverage is for injuries to any
spectator. A spectator is usually defined as anyone that does not have
a clearly defined job. Anyone with a clearly defined job is usually
considered a participant (crew, driver, worker, official, etc).
2 Participant accident insurance is also normally in force and is the
coverage provided for medical bills incured by participants that may be
injured at the track. SCCA has now gone to secondary coverage which
means your own medical insurance pays first to its policy limits and
then the SCCA coverage takes over with fairly high limits. Most other
bodies will likely follow suit on this type coverage.
The waiver has generally held up in court, but contrary to your belief
that spectators are held to any waiver standards, they are not.
Courts have held that spectators are entitled to almost total safety
while viewing racing events, thus a wheel in the stands will genereate
very substancial suits and judgements, which is what the first insurance
is designed to cover. The suits are not normally filed against a driver,
but can be. In that case the driver would have protection under the
liability policy, but a 20 million judgement when there is only 1
million of coverage would mean the named parties to the suit would have
to pay the remaining 19 million. NOT a pretty picture. I know of no
case of this happening, but the possibility is always there.
Participant to participant suits almost never happen (driver to driver,
for example) and when they do are almost never successful. Here the
assumption is that you know the risks and should have no legal recourse.
Hope this provides some of the information you seek.
Larry Dent
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