RICHLAND CO. – A woman injured in a south Jasper County 4-wheeler accident two years ago is the complainant in a lawsuit filed April 9 in Richland County Circuit Court.
The suit is being filed by Brenda L. Ginder, of Richland County, against Walter R. Buss, administrator of the estate of Jeanette Coleman, who is deceased; her husband Chad Coleman; and Johnny Krause. Ginder is seeking a judgment against the estate of the deceased woman to compensate for injuries that occurred in a Jasper County four-wheeler crash in which Ginder was injured.
Court documents show that Coleman was operating said four-wheeler on June 11, 2016, at approximately 11:50 p.m., with Ginder as a passenger on the back. The two were riding on the hilly region in the Boar’s Nest area near the Embarrass River in the southeast part of Jasper County when the four-wheeler went off a cliff and fell near the edge of the river, killing Coleman and injuring Ginder.
The lawsuit claims that Coleman had been drinking and was driving too fast and too dangerously in an area where even extra caution being taken might not have been enough, given the terrain.
The lawsuit does not indicate whether Ginder was also intoxicated at the time, a factor which might play heavily into the decision in court.
Whatever the case, the lawsuit shows that Ginder suffered horrifically as the result of the accident: she suffered a broken back, neurological damage that has caused memory issues and delay as well as vision issues in her right eye, bruises and contusions over various parts of her body, and a broken little finger on her right hand. Further, when they went into the water, court documents state that Ginder ingested water (at this point documents do not specify the type of ingestion: whether Ginder swallowed water into her stomach or breathed it into her lungs), and that caused her to suffer pneumonia (which indicates she breathed it) and sepsis with a heart problem, cardio-myopathy, resulting from the sepsis.
As a result of the injuries, Ginder is said to have had to expend large sums of money for medical and ambulance services, including a helicopter, and further care from the sepsis, and the claim is that her injuries were severe and permanent.
Ginder is seeking a judgment in excess than $50,000, with no amount specified beyond that.
The second count of the suit is what begins the liability stretch, as Ginder claims that Chad Coleman, as owner of the four-wheeler in question, bears responsibility as well. The documents show that he “allowed his wife to take the four-wheeler out to ride in a rough terrain after dark” and “failed to stop his wife from the use of the four-wheeler after she had consumed alcoholic beverages.”
A second liability stretch is Johnny Krause, who in the third count of the suit is named and blamed as “the owner of the real estate where the aforesaid four-wheeler went over the cliff and into the riverbed.”
The documents claim that Krause was guilty of allowing Jeanette Coleman to ride on his property in rough terrain after dark, failed to stop Coleman after she had consumed alcohol, and that the negligence was the reason for Ginder’s injuries.
The documents don’t show whether Krause was actually present when this happened, whether there was express “permission” for the parties to be on his property or just implied, nor any other detail that could draw Krause into it.
Buss, of course, is tied into it because he’s the administrator of Coleman’s estate.
Coleman’s estate has not yet been settled in Richland County Probate Court, with a next date of May 21 listed on the docket.
No hearing date has been set for the Ginder filing as yet.
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