Lowe's Motor Speedway (LMS) officials say the track
"hasn't decided whether it will pay the medical bills of
more than a 100 people injured" when a pedestrian walkway
collapsed after The Winston Saturday night, according to
Chris Burritt of the ATLANTA CONSTITUTION. But LMS "already
is jockeying for advantage in what promises to be a spate of
lawsuits" stemming from the accident. Richard Watson, who
suffered broken vertebrae, said that he will sue if LMS
doesn't pay his medical bills: "At the very least, I can get
an attorney and sue for more [money] than anybody can
imagine." GA-based attorney Robert Beauchamp, who
represented the families of the spectators killed at LMS
during an IRL race last year, said that the speedway could
face "six-figure claims, at a minimum," for the injured who
were hospitalized. As they prepare for Sunday's Coca-Cola
600, LMS officials "are advising the injured to forward
their medical bills to the company," which will share the
information with its insurer "in determining whether to
cover expenses." But LMS VP/Promotions & PR Jerry Gappens
said that the speedway "will not decide whether to pay
medical claims" from the accident "until engineers determine
what caused cables running through the walkway span to rust
and weaken." Meanwhile, A.G. Edwards downgraded the stock
of Speedway Motorsports (SMI), which owns LMS, yesterday
saying the walkway's collapse "increases (the) perceptual
cloud of uncertainty" over SMI's shares. Shares of SMI were
down $0.50 to close at $22 yesterday, and they have declined
by 7% since Monday (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 5/24). SC-based
Tindall Corp. President & CEO William Lowndes IV, whose
company built the walkway, has hired independent consultants
to inspect the damage. Lowndes, on the construction: "The
[NC DOT] approved everything we did, and we did everything
by the book" (Spartanburg (SC) HERALD-JOURNAL, 5/23).
