Q. What happens when we have complete republican rule and they enact all of their corporate greed bills like Tort reform?
A. Actual People pay a very heavy price(H/T Jessica VanEgeren and the Capital Times) !
For Kevin Droz, a softball-size ball of concrete about 4 inches thick that came hurtling through the windshield of his Pontiac Grand Prix on April 17, gouging the left side of his head, proved that event.So what happens to someone who has a permanent life changing injury due to negligence of our infrastructure?
“Fall River man injured in freak highway mishap,” read the headline on the local story that detailed the accident.
Droz, 51, still doesn’t know how, but he drove himself from the site of the accident on the Highway 151 bridge over American Parkway on Madison’s far east side to Columbus Community Hospital some 20 miles away.
Once stabilized, he was flown by Med Flight back to Madison where he stayed at the University of Wisconsin Hospital for 10 days.
He was “stitched up,” he says, with a playing card-size titanium plate put in his head to compensate for a skull fracture. He’s now blind in his left eye and that side of his face is often still numb. He’s meeting with a neurosurgeon soon to examine lingering problems with his right shoulder
The new law, which had been sought by local governments for years, took form in the summer of 2011. Known as the “pothole liability” bill, AB180/SB125 was sponsored by Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, and Rep. Andre Jacque, R-De Pere, and gave presumptive immunity to counties, cities, towns, and villages for most damages or injuries resulting from highway defects.
When the bill was introduced, Jacque said the $50,000 could be better spent on fixing roads, according to his legislative website.
He said it was “a basic fairness issue,” and that with the previous system the only ones who benefited from the claims on road damage were trial attorneys. He said that was because most drivers leave the scene, making it difficult to connect the damage to a specific road defect, according to his website.
On his website, Jacque said the bill wouldn’t apply to instances of “egregious negligence” or things like bridges being out, but it would most likely apply to buckling pavement.
Jacque and Grothman were named “outstanding legislators for 2011-2012” by the Wisconsin Counties Association for their work on the bill. Neither returned phone calls Friday seeking comment.
Even though Mr. Droz, will never be the same and will "likely be on disability assistance the rest of his life" he can sleep well tonight knowing that both Andre Jacque and Glenn Grothman are solidly "pro-life"!
God Bless!
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