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$35 Million Verdict in Palm Beach, FL Yamaha WaveRunner Trial Stands
Posted on Sep 08, 2011
$35 Million Verdict in Palm Beach, FL Yamaha WaveRunner Trial Stands
A Palm Beach County Circuit Judge has denied Yamaha's request to throw out the $35 million jury verdict awarded to Samantha Archer and to the parents of Jaysell Perez. Jaysell Perez died and Samantha Archer received severe injuries in 2005 when the 2001 Yamaha WaveRunner they rode crashed into a boat. Samantha Archer said that she had released the throttle to steer the water scooter, but once she released the throttle, the WaveRunner would not steer.
The jury said they awarded the large verdict because:
- Yamaha had received reports for years about this dangerous defect in their water scooters,
- Yamaha had not been able to correct the problem until 2003, but
- The company continued to sell and market the defective WaveRunner up until 2003.
- Basically, the company put sales before lives and safety.
The 2005 WaveRunner crash that abruptly ended Jaysell Perez's life left Samantha Archer, now 21 years old, with horrific injuries. Mr. Archer has undergone multiple surgeries to repair the damage, and will need multiple hip and knee replacements over the course of her life. Her doctors say that she will experience an array of mental, physical and emotional problems caused by the accident throughout her life.
We support the decisions of the jury and the judge in this case. We're frankly a little stunned at the temerity of Yamaha in asking that the verdict be thrown out. The case decision indicates that Yamaha spent years aware of the dangerous defect in the WaveRunner's steering mechanism. The defect could cause drivers to lose the ability to steer the water scooters if they released the throttle.
Lacking the ability to steer, WaveRunner drivers and passengers could suffer deadly crashes at high speeds (as did Ms. Perez and Ms. Archer). Yet, notified repeatedly of the problem, Yamaha still neglected to recall the water scooters and take the WaveRunner off the market until it could find a way to correct the product defect. In the meantime, teenaged Jaysell Perez was tragically killed and her friend Samantha Perez suffered devastating accident injuries and trauma that will haunt her for her entire life.
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