A former University of Georgia Football staffer who was badly injured in a car crash in January is suing Philadelphia Eagles rookie Jalen Carter, the UGA Athletic Association, and the estate of the driver who died in the accident.<\/p>\n
Victoria Bowles, who worked as a recruiting analyst at UGA, was riding in the backseat of a rented Ford Expedition driven by another recruiting analyst, Chandler LeCroy, following the celebration of Georgia\u2019s repeat championship win. LeCroy and Jalen Carter were street racing when LeCroy\u2019s SUV crashed into two power poles, several trees and the side of a house leading to the death of offensive lineman Devin Willock and LeCroy. Bowles suffered serious injuries in the crash including a spinal cord injury, fractured vertebrae, 10 fractured ribs, a fractured clavicle, a collapsed lung, a closed head injury leading to neurological damage, lacerations on her liver and kidney, and a neurological condition that can lead to permanent paralysis.<\/p>\n
Bowles is suing Carter for liability and gross negligence claiming that Carter engaged in reckless driving and tandem street racing and drove at dangerous and extraordinarily high speeds.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit also asserts that UGA Athletic Association was negligent in entrusting LeCroy with the SUV rented by the school\u2019s football program, knowing she previously had at least four speeding tickets including two \u201csuper speeders.\u201d According to the lawsuit, an athletic association staff member attempted to get a county clerk to reduce one of LeCroy\u2019s \u201csuper speeder\u201d charges in October of 2022. However, UGA claims that the staffer\u2019s involvement with the ticket \u201cwas purely in his personal capacity as a favor to a friend based on his knowledge of traffic court proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to the alleged negligence of UGA\u2019s Athletic Association and Jalen Carter, the lawsuit centers around the permissive use of the vehicle. The lawsuit most notably pushes back against the notion that LeCroy had not been authorized to use the vehicle by the UGA Athletic Association at the time of the crash. Following the accident, the Athletic Association issued a public statement claiming that staffers only had permission to use and drive the SUVs during \u201crecruiting activities\u201d and that \u201crental vehicles were to be turned in at the immediate conclusion of recruiting duties.”<\/p>\n
However, Bowles\u2019 lawsuit includes multiple screenshots of text messages between the athletic association officials and LeCroy that say otherwise.<\/p>\n
One such exchange reads as follows:<\/p>\n
Supervisor:<\/strong> “Haley said you’re good! And you can take your car home if you need to!”<\/p>\n Bowles: <\/strong>“Wait, just making sure you mean I can take the SUV with me?”<\/p>\n Supervisor:<\/strong> “Yes! Take it home”<\/p>\n Multiple, additional screenshots show that recruiting staffers and analysts were allowed to keep the cars from the time they were distributed until 11 a.m. the following day or on Sunday morning. As the lawsuit says, staffers \u201cwere allowed on numerous occasions prior to the subject crash to permissively use the UGA Athletic Association rental vehicles for personal use during down time between scheduled recruiting activities, as well as take the SUVs home overnight after the conclusion of their recruiting activities.\u201d<\/p>\n Bowles is seeking special and general damages which include medical expenses totaling at least $171,595, future medical expenses, lost wages totaling at least $3,434, damages due to diminished capacity to work or labor, physical disability, past present and future mental and physical pain and suffering, as well as bad faith damages. Bowles is also seeking punitive damages against each named Defendant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former UGA staffer who was severely injured in a fatal car crash is suing Eagles\u2019 rookie Jalen Carter and UGA\u2019s Athletic Association among others. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":6891,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,1],"tags":[],"audience":[],"coauthors":[1051],"class_list":["post-6890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-commentary","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\r\n