Punitive Damages to be Requested in Drunken Driving Trial

Testimony continues Tuesday, May 26, in the Sioux Falls courthouse in the automobile accident case against Graham Tire Company that left one person dead and three others injured.

Millions of dollars are expected to be asked in the case against an employee of the tire company who was intoxicated behind the wheel of a company van when he struck the other car.

Robert Clifford, nationally prominent trial attorney from Chicago, said he intends to resume the plaintiff's case Tuesday with testimony from the surviving passengers in the car including Don Dickerson of Sioux Falls who was permanently brain damaged in the accident. Dickerson's wife, Diane, was killed in the 1995 crash.

Clifford said he intends to ask the eight-woman-four-man jury for punitive damages in the case which is expected to wrap up this week.

Dr. Donald Wingert, trauma surgeon at McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls, told the jury last week that 60-70 per cent of all serious trauma cases at that hospital result from automobile accidents involving alcohol abuse.

"The jury will be asked whether it is time to send a message to the community of Sioux Falls that it will no longer tolerate this type of reckless conduct," Clifford said. "Through punitive damages, this jury can let everyone else know that the citizens of Sioux Falls abhor this irresponsible behavior and that it will no longer be tolerated."

Dickerson was a passenger in Larry and Kathleen McMichael's Ford Mustang when it was struck by the Graham's Dodge Caravan at what some experts estimate to have been greatly in excess of the speed limit.

Jay Gunderson, an employee of Graham Tire Company, was twice the level of legal intoxication at the time he collided the company van into McMichael's car. Gunderson left Nutty's Pub in Sioux Falls at about 8:30 p.m. April 22, 1995, after having consumed up to 12 beers in four hours, according to plaintiff's expert. Gunderson had drunk in the company of several Graham Tire Company corporate officers who did not exercise their duty to take away the keys of Gunderson before he got behind the wheel of the company van.

The company's policy prohibited employees from driving company vehicles before or after work hours under the influence of alcohol.

Clifford Law Offices represents Don Dickerson and his children as well as the estate of Diane Dickerson. Clifford Law Offices in Chicago is a nationally prominent firm concentrating in transportation, aviation, medical negligence, personal injury and wrongful death litigation.

The trial is being heard before Judge Glen Severson in Room 4B at the Minnehaha County Court House.