A sports bar is on the hook for $2 million for serving an underage client who then got behind the wheel and ran over a pedestrian and 2-year-old child.
Isaac Sanchez was holding his 2-year-old nephew and standing on the side of a road when a drunk driver drove off the road and over a lawn before hitting him. His nephew was thrown from his arms but was not hurt, while Sanchez was seriously injured. He only remembers part of the accident.
“Everything happened so fast you know, it was like a flash – the impact, the pain,” Sanchez said.
The 20-year-old driver, Valerie Dibble, was underage and had a blood alcohol level of 0.22, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08.
Sanchez sued the Crossroads Sports Bar in Florida, which was located two miles away from the accident, for intentionally serving an underage drinker.
In the trial, the bar claimed Dibble was never in the bar. But a jury didn’t buy that argument, and ordered the bar to pay Sanchez $2 million.
Dibble was convicted in a criminal trial of drunken driving and of causing serious bodily injury, and was sentenced to three years of community supervision.
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