2004 news story about the Weaver's father
deb...@comcast.net
A Daytona International Speedway safety worker was killed Sunday
afternoon when he was struck by a race car being driven by a paraplegic
competitor in a race during activities leading up to next week's
Daytona 500. Roy H. Weaver III, a 44-year-old track crew supervisor,
was picking up debris in the Turn 2 area of the 2.5-mile track after a
crash during the IPower 150 when he was struck by a race car being
driven by Ray Paprota. Paprota, 41, is paralyzed from the waist down as
a result of injuries he suffered in an automobile crash in 1984. He
uses specially modified hand controls to accelerate, brake and change
gears in his race car. Sunday's race was the first held under authority
of IPower, a sanctioning body that bought what was formerly known as
the NASCAR Goody's Dash Series late last year. Randy Claypoole,
executive vice president of administration for IPower, said Daytona
Beach police were leading the investigation into the incident that
resulted in the 36th fatality at the Daytona speedway since it opened
in 1959. A track spokesman said Weaver is the first track employee to
die at the facility. "This incident came during a caution period as the
field was realigning," Claypoole said. He added that he did not know if
Paprota's car made contact with any other car before hitting Weaver.
J Durant
By JAY STAPLETON
Staff Writer
Last update: August 19, 2005
DAYTONA BEACH -- The widow of a track worker killed at Daytona International
Speedway in 2004 has filed a lawsuit against the Speedway and others,
claiming Roy Weaver died because the track lacked adequate safety procedures
and the driver who struck him was traveling too fast.
The suit also claims that because officials didn't immediately stop the
race, drivers continued to "strike, drive over, desecrate and mutilate"
Weaver's body.
Weaver was picking up debris Feb. 8, 2004, in Turn 2 during the IPOWER Dash
Series 150 when Ray Paprota, driving under a caution flag, struck and killed
him.
The lawsuit filed by the victim's widow, Linda S. Weaver of Ormond Beach,
seeks an unspecified amount of damages in excess of $75,000. The defendants
named in the suit include International Speedway Corp., IPOWER Racing and
Ray Paprota, the driver who struck Weaver.
"He didn't have to die," Angelo Pattaco Jr., an attorney representing the
Weaver family, said Thursday.
The suit says Weaver died unnecessarily because there were not "reasonable
and effective procedures in place to protect track workers" doing their
jobs. He also said the track officials failed "to have enough people
watching the track" and failed to ensure "adequate communications" to warn
about hazards on the track.
And after Weaver was hit, Pattaco said, his body was further mutilated by
cars continuing around the track for at least one more lap under a caution
flag.
"They should have stopped the race," Pattaco said. "This man who needed
attention was lying on the track."
The suit says Paprota left the pit area "at an excessive rate of speed,"
considering the caution flag was out, before hitting Weaver.
Weaver, 44, of Ormond Beach was the first track worker killed since the
Speedway opened in 1959. He left behind his wife and three children ages 14
to 19.
The Weaver family continues to suffer, Patacco said, and they'll ask a jury
to compensate the family fairly, "in light of the man who was lost."
Calls to the International Speedway Corp. were not immediately returned.
Linda Weaver said she is preparing a statement, and Paprota deferred comment
until he was able to review the complaint.
In February, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration
reached a settlement with the Speedway when the track agreed to develop a
written safety and training policy for cleanup personnel who are "exposed to
the hazard of being struck by moving competition vehicles while performing
their duties."
The track also agreed to train its safety teams at least once a year and
strengthen radio communication between the control tower and those tending
to accidents on the ground.
OSHA withdrew its most serious citation against the track stemming from the
death: failure to have a written protocol for workers stepping on the track.
That settlement agreement, which allowed the Speedway to avoid a $6,300
fine, stipulated that the citation and settlement were not to be used as
evidence of negligence in any other legal action.
<deb...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1132540029.9...@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
J Durant
By ANDREW LYONS
Staff Writer
Last update: November 07, 2004
ORMOND BEACH -- Linda Weaver would scribble a Bible verse on a scrap piece
of paper and stick it in her husband's lunch bag.
On the morning of Feb. 8, she jotted down a verse from Isaiah, chapter 40 --
words of encouragement about renewed strength from God. Beneath the verse,
she wrote: "Trust the Lord, my love. Trust him."
N-J/Brian Myrick
Linda Weaver, with her daugher Rebecca, 18, seated at her side, takes
a moment to reflect while talking recently about the events of the day her
husband, Roy, was killed at Daytona International Speedway.
It was supposed to be another day at the races for Roy Weaver. As a crew
supervisor, 44-year-old Roy would motor around Daytona International
Speedway and dart onto the track when needed. His mission: grab debris that
could cut a tire and cause a wreck.
Trying to find the race on the television, Linda was flipping through the
channels that afternoon when the phone rang. The person on the other end
said there had been an accident, that she should immediately come to the
hospital. She thought, at worst, he lost a leg. She believed in her heart it
wasn't bad.
At the hospital, no one would say where Roy was. Someone, she doesn't
remember who, finally approached, then came incomprehensible words. "It was
fatal."
Linda screamed, and a hospital worker closed the door.
And there, in a quiet spot next to the emergency room in a cold but bustling
Halifax Medical Center, Linda Weaver stood. She was a woman in love with her
husband, suddenly feeling all alone -- the leader of the Weaver family was
gone.
"I was just in shock," she said.
Linda would never see Roy's body that day. The accident was too brutal. He
had darted to the middle of the track to grab something; no one knows what
that something was.
Roy was hit by a race car going more than 100 mph.
Nine months later, Roy's death is at the center of a federal report and a
possible future lawsuit.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration contends the Speedway
failed to enforce safety rules that could have prevented the tragedy. But
Speedway leaders disagree. They are appealing OSHA's findings, refusing to
pay the $6,300 fine.
Linda said she believes the Speedway is taking no responsibility. She is
working with an attorney, who is also her second cousin, to investigate what
happened and consider filing a wrongful death lawsuit.
"As soon as they pressure washed his remains from the track and resumed the
race," Tallahassee attorney Rob Clarke said, "it was as if Roy's death
didn't happen."
Speedway officials refuse to speak in detail about the accident, citing
legal concerns surrounding their appeal with OSHA. But track officials
contend they have reached out to the Weaver family. Spokesman David Talley
said that immediately after the accident, the track hosted a memorial with
food and provided bathrooms, tents and three recreational vehicles where
grieving relatives from out of town could stay.
Many Speedway workers, Talley added, also donated money to Roy's church.
Linda, however, said track officials have cast blame. She said they met
privately with her family two days after the accident to tell her only one
person was responsible for Roy's death -- Roy.
She said their words left her infuriated, crushed and confused.
"Roy gave 110 percent. Roy was proud to work at the Speedway. He was part of
the Speedway family," she said recently during her first sit-down interview
since the accident. "I don't know what happened to that family."
THE MEETING
In the days following Roy's death, Linda devoured every printed word and
watched the television news broadcasts about the accident. The facts, she
said, brought comfort.
"I didn't know what happened," she said during a two-hour interview last
month in the dining room of her home. "I needed to know the details."
Two days after Roy's death, a Speedway executive called and asked to visit.
At 10:30 a.m. Feb. 10, three Speedway officials arrived to find a house
packed with extended family members and church friends. Linda remembers the
hug she received from Dick Hahne, director of operations at the track, whom
she said she hardly knew.
"God is awesome," she recalled Hahne saying boldly. They might have been
intended as words of encouragement, but Linda said she felt uncomfortable,
that his words seemed aggressive and phony.
"It kind of took me back," her 18-year-old daughter, Rebecca, said.
Seated in the home's parlor, Hahne told Linda what went wrong. He said track
workers follow three rules: never pick up flying debris, never turn your
back to a race car, never step onto the track without an "all clear."
Linda said she wasn't prepared for what Hahne would next say. "Every track
worker knows you can't enter the track without an all clear. Roy didn't have
an all clear."
Silence fell over the room.
Roy, 44, was a former minister who started working at the track seven years
earlier and rose through the ranks. He had recently been promoted to a
high-profile seasonal job -- running a smaller track in Colorado during the
summer of 2003. His family knew he loved his job at the Speedway. So Hahne's
words were troubling.
When someone spoke up, it was the pastor of Roy's parents' church in
Alabama. "Who in here is on Linda's side?"
"You could have heard a pin drop," Linda recalled. "Then someone said: 'OSHA
is on Linda's side.' "
In that moment, Linda realized from now on, there would be two sides.
Linda asked the men to leave, but before they left, she stopped Hahne.
Quietly, she leaned forward and told him he knew Roy's work ethic; she
questioned whether he even believed what he was saying.
She said tears filled Hahne's eyes.
Nine months later, it's this meeting that Linda has run through her mind "a
million times." She believes Speedway officials presented no evidence to
back up their claims.
"I wouldn't have let my children in the room if I had known what was going
to happen," she said. "That breaks my heart."
A memorial service was held for Weaver that night at Daytona USA, the
racing-themed attraction outside the track. Speedway President Robin Braig
spoke, along with his pastor from Tomoka Christian Church. But Linda never
again spoke directly with officials from the Speedway.
Hahne was asked by The Daytona Beach News-Journal to be interviewed for this
story. He said he was willing to speak if Speedway lawyers would approve.
But they would not.
"Until this issue with OSHA is resolved," track spokesman David Talley said,
"we cannot say anything.
"Mrs. Weaver has retained an attorney and is seeking millions of dollars
from us," Talley said. "As result of the litigation threatened by Mrs.
Weaver, we are unable to discuss the matter."
A NEW LEADER
For six months, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration
would investigate what went wrong that Sunday during the IPOWERacing Dash
150, which was not a NASCAR-sanctioned event. Catastrophe unfolded when
Alabama driver Ray Paprota sped out of pit lane, trying to catch up with the
pack of race cars. He completed one lap and then navigated Turn 1 once more
to find the unthinkable -- a person on the track, in his way.
Given the curvature of the track and the speed Paprota was traveling, there
was no time to react. Daytona Beach police would later declare the tragedy
an accident.
"This is something that will be with me forever," Paprota said in September.
"Every day I think about it. You can't live your life without having it
impact you after something like that happens to you."
While Paprota is learning to live with that memory, the Weaver family is
learning to survive.
Linda and Roy met in college at Auburn University. In marriage, Roy led his
home with evangelical Christian values. At church, he taught Sunday school.
At home, he was the leader. That was the way things were, the way Linda
liked it.
"He took the load," she said.
Now she would have to earn the money. For years, Linda was a correspondent
for The News-Journal, writing feature stories for the paper's Neighbors
section, covering community and school events. At home, she focused on home
schooling the kids.
The thought of life without Roy was unbearable; but she found strength in
God and help from fellow church members.
In the months to come, money arrived in the mail. Church members showed up
to tackle chores. They laid sod and installed a fountain in the front yard.
A memorial garden to Roy was constructed where Linda would scatter his
ashes.
The couple's "faith in the Lord" had always held them together, Linda said.
Now faith was carrying her onward.
For weeks, Linda grappled with the issue of home schooling her kids. Putting
the kids in the public school system, Linda feared would be too overwhelming
during an already tumultuous time period. So she prayed.
That's when God opened a door, a new career, she said. Linda now teaches
fifth-graders at Calvary Christian Academy, where she enrolled her own kids.
After Roy's death, Linda received an $80,000 life insurance settlement
through the Speedway, based on twice his annual salary. For the next two
years, she'll also receive his Social Security benefits. She still writes
newspaper stories, but money is tight. At least the bills are getting paid.
"God has been faithful," she said. "He has provided everything."
THE NEXT STEP
It could take months, years, before a settlement or a verdict is reached
between the Speedway and OSHA on what went wrong and why.
Clarke, Weaver's attorney, will not say when he intends to file a lawsuit.
The $6,300 fine dealing with Weaver's death was considered a "serious"
violation, which meant OSHA officials thought track officials knew or should
have known employees were in harm's way.
The federal agency found the Speedway failed to have a written protocol that
dictates when workers can step onto the track. OSHA is asking an
administrative law judge to hold a hearing so both sides can present their
cases. If the judge finds in favor of OSHA, the Speedway can continue
appealing to federal court, all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Bill France, vice chairman of NASCAR and chairman of International Speedway
Corp., said rescue workers and cleanup crews have run onto the track for 50
years without being killed.
"This is the first time we lost someone in all these years," he said at the
time. "I think it's a pretty good record."
And since Roy's death, track officials have changed how safety crews
communicate and respond to wrecks. They have also added another person to
the Nextel Tower who speaks directly to firefighters and emergency medical
responders during races. Linda concedes she's intimidated by the thought of
challenging the Speedway in court. But she wants answers.
At home in Ormond Beach, memories of Roy are everywhere.
Eighteen-year-old Rebecca can't bare to listen to one popular song from
country band Rascal Flats. She heard that song the day her dad died.
Rachael, 15, keeps a memory box. Inside is a rose from the funeral,
mistletoe that hung above her parents' headboard, sheet music from a song
she was playing on the piano one day when Roy stopped to say he liked it.
His son Rolly, 13, still watches football. Recently, a friend's father took
him to Jacksonville to watch the Jaguars play the Kansas City Chiefs. The
Jaguars won with 45 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, but Rolly came
home quiet.
Linda asked what was wrong. Rolly said it just wasn't the same. Dad would
have gotten to the game early. Dad would have cheered loudly. Dad wasn't
there.
Linda dwells on the good times.
A month before his death, Roy and Linda went on what would be their last
date. Roy surprised Linda by taking her to a beachside boutique to splurge
on new clothes. A few weeks later, Linda took their older daughter, Rebecca,
to the boutique, and the sales clerk remembered Linda. The clerk couldn't
believe they had been married for 20 years. Roy seemed so affectionate. The
clerk said she thought they were dating.
Linda, 46, knows she may never get over losing Roy. She also knows he was
thinking of her, all the way to the end.
She never saw his body that day, but she did get his personal belongings --
clothes, wallet and lunch bag.
And inside that bag was a message with a smudge from where he must have held
that note.
It was a Bible verse from Isaiah, chapter 40.
It read: "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength."
Under that verse were these words: "Trust the Lord, my love. Trust him."
And Linda realized what had happened. Roy had sent her message back.
<deb...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1132540029.9...@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
nancy1
J Durant wrote:
> Grief won't stop search for truth
>
> By ANDREW LYONS
> Staff Writer
>
> Last update: November 07, 2004
>
>
> ORMOND BEACH -- Linda Weaver would scribble a Bible verse on a scrap piece
> of paper and stick it in her husband's lunch bag.
Personally, I think it's terrible that people sue at the drop of a hat.
Where is Roy's responsibility for his own death in all this? Bah, a
pox on people who don't believe something can be just an accident and
nothing more.
N.
Stuart Johnson
wrote:
I think its terrible that you blame the victim.
Stuart
stuart@_SPAM_BLOCK_inetnebr.com
Stuart's Castle http://incolor.inetnebr.com/stuart/
Henshin Hall Of Fame http://incolor.inetnebr.com/stuart/henshin/
He who will not feed the cats, must feed the mice and
rats.
-- German proverb
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nancy1
Stuart Johnson wrote:
> On 21 Nov 2005 14:56:36 -0800, "nancy1" <nancy-...@uiowa.edu>
> wrote:
>
> >
> >J Durant wrote:
> >> Grief won't stop search for truth
> >>
> >> By ANDREW LYONS
> >> Staff Writer
> >>
> >> Last update: November 07, 2004
> >>
> >>
> >> ORMOND BEACH -- Linda Weaver would scribble a Bible verse on a scrap piece
> >> of paper and stick it in her husband's lunch bag.
> >> /
> >
> >Personally, I think it's terrible that people sue at the drop of a hat.
> > Where is Roy's responsibility for his own death in all this? Bah, a
> >pox on people who don't believe something can be just an accident and
> >nothing more.
>
>
> I think its terrible that you blame the victim.
>
I believe in taking responsibility for one's decisions. It was an
accident. Everyone always wants to sue someone instead of taking
responsibility.
N.
Kimmer45
"nancy1" <nancy-...@uiowa.edu> wrote in message
news:1132763532.5...@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
things just happen, and it is nobody's fault. Why does everything have to
turn in to a law suit? He was working in a dangerous sport. Just Sunday at
the NASCAR season finale, two pit crew members got hit on pit road when one
car exited his pit and didn't see another car coming down pit road. The
driver hit the jackman and the tire changer in the pit in front of his.
Luckily, nobody was badly hurt, but it was just an accident.
Why is everyone who has something tragic happen to them a "victim" rather
than a casualty?
I guess when my fiancé died, I should have hunted for an attorney - I
probably could have sued over the length of time it took the ambulance to
get to the house, or maybe I could have sued the hospital for a visit three
weeks earlier. Or maybe they should have worked harder to save him. Or
maybe I just should have realized that his death was nobody's fault and I
shouldn't get rich over it, and they tried to save him. I'm sure if I
hunted long enough, I could have found a reason to sue someone. And even
though I was just a fiancé, I'm sure in today's society, I could find a
judge and jury to hear the case.
It is sad that Roy was killed, but suing isn't the answer here.
kimmer45
Harold Burton
"nancy1" <nancy-...@uiowa.edu> wrote:
I think it's terrible that people make lame trolls at the drop of a hat.