Post by catfan52 on Feb 12, 2006 21:36:10 GMT -5
Hendrick calls Diane Dorton's suit over NASCAR team crash disappointing, a 'cheap shot'
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Team owner Rick Hendrick on Saturday said he was "very disappointed" in Dianne Dorton, the widow of one of the men killed in a 2004 Hendrick Motorsports plane crash, for comments she's made referencing a wrongful death lawsuit she's filed against the company.
Dorton and the wife of another man killed in the 2004 crash recently filed wrongful death lawsuits claiming the company was negligent in their husbands' deaths.
Dorton, the widow of Hendrick engine builder Randy Dorton, said in an interview with the Observer that the lawsuit was "just an insurance issue" after the company didn't respond to her requests for help after her husband died.
Her lawsuit alleges company president John Hendrick rejected the pilot's suggestion to divert to a different airport because of foggy weather in Martinsville, Va. Dorton and Hendrick were among 10 people killed in the October 2004 crash of the plane.
"You can do a lawsuit for an insurance company, but you don't have to personally attack my family and you don't have to say the company hasn't helped when we've broken our back and been there and done things," an emotional Hendrick said Saturday.
"Those are the two things that bother me. Lawsuits don't bother me. That's why we have insurance. To attack my family personally when we've done everything we can, I was very disappointed in Dianne."
Hendrick disputes Dorton's claim he didn't respond to requests for help.
"I paid Randy's bonus in 2004. I paid him six months in 2005. She's got a BMW, I paid her insurance. We had somebody there helping her night and day and available, I met with her anytime she wanted to," he said.
Dorton was out of the country Saturday and unavailable for comment.
Hendrick called accusations his brother, John, overruled a pilot to land at the Martinsville airport "totally false."
"My brother was a ‘white-knuckled flier' – he was very afraid. He canceled a lot of trips because he didn't really like to fly," Hendrick said. "I don't understand the attack on my brother. I thought it was a cheap-shot. It was disappointing and not true.
"A plane lands in front of them, which means things are OK. They go up there, two well-trained (pilots) as good as we've ever had. They simply made a mistake. The weather was not great. ...And it happened.
"It's something I live with. I have a six-month-old granddaughter that is never going to know her dad. It's been hurtful to everybody."
According to a report from the National Transportation Safety Board released last week, the crew improperly read instruments and missed a landing approach to Blue Ridge Airport in Martinsville.
The plane crashed into fog-shrouded Bull Mountain in the foothills of the Appalachians.
Among the dead were Rick Hendrick's son Ricky Hendrick, his brother John Hendrick, John Hendrick's daughters, Dorton and Jeff Turner of Hendrick Motorsports, a helicopter pilot for NASCAR champion Tony Stewart, Joe Jackson of DuPont and the plane's two pilots, thingy Tracy and Liz Morrison.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Team owner Rick Hendrick on Saturday said he was "very disappointed" in Dianne Dorton, the widow of one of the men killed in a 2004 Hendrick Motorsports plane crash, for comments she's made referencing a wrongful death lawsuit she's filed against the company.
Dorton and the wife of another man killed in the 2004 crash recently filed wrongful death lawsuits claiming the company was negligent in their husbands' deaths.
Dorton, the widow of Hendrick engine builder Randy Dorton, said in an interview with the Observer that the lawsuit was "just an insurance issue" after the company didn't respond to her requests for help after her husband died.
Her lawsuit alleges company president John Hendrick rejected the pilot's suggestion to divert to a different airport because of foggy weather in Martinsville, Va. Dorton and Hendrick were among 10 people killed in the October 2004 crash of the plane.
"You can do a lawsuit for an insurance company, but you don't have to personally attack my family and you don't have to say the company hasn't helped when we've broken our back and been there and done things," an emotional Hendrick said Saturday.
"Those are the two things that bother me. Lawsuits don't bother me. That's why we have insurance. To attack my family personally when we've done everything we can, I was very disappointed in Dianne."
Hendrick disputes Dorton's claim he didn't respond to requests for help.
"I paid Randy's bonus in 2004. I paid him six months in 2005. She's got a BMW, I paid her insurance. We had somebody there helping her night and day and available, I met with her anytime she wanted to," he said.
Dorton was out of the country Saturday and unavailable for comment.
Hendrick called accusations his brother, John, overruled a pilot to land at the Martinsville airport "totally false."
"My brother was a ‘white-knuckled flier' – he was very afraid. He canceled a lot of trips because he didn't really like to fly," Hendrick said. "I don't understand the attack on my brother. I thought it was a cheap-shot. It was disappointing and not true.
"A plane lands in front of them, which means things are OK. They go up there, two well-trained (pilots) as good as we've ever had. They simply made a mistake. The weather was not great. ...And it happened.
"It's something I live with. I have a six-month-old granddaughter that is never going to know her dad. It's been hurtful to everybody."
According to a report from the National Transportation Safety Board released last week, the crew improperly read instruments and missed a landing approach to Blue Ridge Airport in Martinsville.
The plane crashed into fog-shrouded Bull Mountain in the foothills of the Appalachians.
Among the dead were Rick Hendrick's son Ricky Hendrick, his brother John Hendrick, John Hendrick's daughters, Dorton and Jeff Turner of Hendrick Motorsports, a helicopter pilot for NASCAR champion Tony Stewart, Joe Jackson of DuPont and the plane's two pilots, thingy Tracy and Liz Morrison.