I know I am obsessed with the idea of my 16 year old daughter getting her permit and starting to drive. I have been an attorney too long and am perhaps a little paranoid, but then again maybe not. I am going to run a situation by you. Consider these facts:

·        You have a child that is 17 years old.

·        Your child has five previous speeding tickets; several of these tickets have speeds in excess of 100 mph.

·        On two occasions a parent was in the car with the child when the child got a ticket for going over 100 mph.

·        Your child is a professional “drift” driver, a motor sport that involves controlling a car while it is going sideways at a high rate of speed.

·        It can be proved that one of the child’s parents made the statement “Oh, I love it, I love it. The rush, the speed on the road, stereo blasting, heart pounding, racing in between all cars, dodging the cops, it’s awesome.”

·        The car the child drives was modified to increase its horse power.

·        A parent had purchased beer that the child had later drunk with the parent.

·        The child was later driving at an excessive rate of speed with a passenger.

·        The child was intoxicated.

·        The child was racing another car from light to light.

·        The child lost control of the car and crashed into a tree.

·        The passenger was severely injured and in a coma.

I wish I could say this is an episode of Boston Legal or that I made it up, but I can’t. This is the basic facts contained in a lawsuit filed against Terry Bollea, his wife Linda and their son Nicholas in Florida Circuit Court. This will make more sense when I tell you that Terry Bollea is also known as Hulk Hogan. All of the tragic facts I have listed are alleged in a lawsuit filed by the passenger in Nicholas Bollea’s car, John Graziano. I know this case is over two years old and is old news but it makes me think as to the message we send new drivers and how this message can affect us.

This lawsuit is a little different because it not only names the at-fault driver as a defendant, but it also names the parents of that driver who was a minor. The lawsuit lists several theories of liability on the Hogan’s, or the parents. These theories are based on the parent’s knowledge of the son’s activities and their condoning those activities. The attorney that filed the lawsuit, Kimberly Kohn, stated that “They not only encouraged it but they did not take appropriate action to stop it and protect the public.” The lawsuit states that Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan) is directly liable for the actions of his son under Florida statutes. The theories laid out include:

·        Improper Supervision

·        Alcohol Use

·        Negligent Entrustment

·        Failure To Exercise Parental Control

·        Ratifying The Conduct

·        Allowing The Son To Operate A Car While Intoxicated

This is an extreme and tragic situation involving two fiends. Lawsuits only give an outline of the Plaintiff’s side of the story. Hulk Hogan reportedly stated that there are eyewitness accounts that say that the boys were not racing.

The legal theory of negligent entrustment is a viable cause of action in Kentucky. A parent under extreme circumstances can be held liable for the actions of a minor child, even a 17 year old child. One needs to be careful how they teach a child how to drive, the proper way to handle a car on the roads. Accident prevention is key and begins when a 15 year old first thinks about driving. They are watching what the parents do.

By sending a new driver signals that it is okay to drive at a high rate of speed what are we telling them by our words or our actions? That the laws of the road are made to be broken? These are the very laws that are in place to protect us from being injured in car accidents. This message makes our Kentucky roads dangerous and leads to serious and deadly automobile accidents. We need to be very careful the message we give our young drivers.

I learned this lesson earlier this week when my daughter took her permit test. She missed a question involving merging onto the high way. Her options were narrowed down to accelerate and merge or decelerate and merge. Her gut reaction was to accelerate and merge. She marked it and then erased the answer and changed it to decelerate and merge. Why did she change the answer?  On the way to school that morning I was merging onto the Watterson and had slowed down to let the car in the lane of travel go by. Since I had done it on this occasion she missed that question and missed getting her permit by one question. We will try again today. Hopefully I do a better job driving her to school.