Man Hurt at Dirt Bike Track to Get $7 Million : Brain-Injury Case Among Several Filed Against Park Formerly Operated on Irvine Co. Lands

A 19-year-old Fountain Valley man severely injured in a dirt bike collision nearly three years ago at the now-closed Saddleback Park won a settlement Monday that will pay him more than $7 million over the course of his life.

The major provision of the agreement gives Jeffrey Todd Smithson, who suffered brain-stem damage and other injuries, an annuity that will pay him $7,000 a month starting next year, with the monthly amount to increase by 3.6% each year, lawyers on both sides said.

Smithson was injured and his friend, John Fawcett, 17, of Fountain Valley, was killed Sept. 8, 1983, when the two collided on a dirt road in the 700-acre motorcycle course, located off Santiago Canyon Road near Irvine Lake in an unincorporated area of the county.

Smithson was riding on a road along the top of a hill as Fawcett was riding uphill, jumping vacant terraces cut into the hill for vehicle parking. Neither could see the other until Fawcett’s last jump onto the road--and onto Smithson, according to Toxie Hall Smith of Los Angeles, attorney for Smithson.

Faulty Design Alleged

The lawyer claimed the park and the 5.2-mile course were negligently designed.

But the park, which closed last fall when it failed to get insurance coverage for accidents, “expressly denied” any negligence in settling the lawsuit, said park attorney David Cooksey of Tustin.

The park, which operated on land leased from the Irvine Co., claimed Fawcett was negligent in climbing the hill and causing the crash and that Smithson was negligent by exceeding a 15-m.p.h. speed limit and perhaps jumping along the hill as well.

“Smithson was totally innocent,” Smith said. “The place was built for motocross but had a blind area.”

There were no witnesses, and Smithson has no memory of the accident, Smith said.

Cooksey said his office is defending eight other cases brought by injured dirt bike riders and that other law firms are defending an undetermined number of other cases. He said the Irvine Co. refused to allow the park to offer dirt bike riding without insurance.

Under the settlement, which cost the park’s insurance companies a little more than $1.5 million, Smithson also will receive $300,000 in cash immediately. But $200,000 of that amount will go to his lawyers--Smith and Richard G. Becker of Los Angeles--as attorney fees. An additional $50,000 will go to his parents, Wade and Melinda Smithson, for expenses paid on their son’s behalf.

In addition, another annuity will pay Smithson’s lawyers $100,000 a year for six years, beginning next year, Smith and Cooksey said.

The agreement was reached with the help of Superior Court Judge Richard N. Parslow.