This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City , Oklahoma ,who purchased a new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down, $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.
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Can you believe it?
Of course, (you saw it coming, didn't you?): Here are my TOP TEN thoughts about this:
1. Thank God no one in my family has bred with this woman or any of her family (to my knowledge)...of course there is this ONE cousin I am wondering about....(No, Jessie, if you are reading this, not YOU!)
2. Holy Shit
3. What did she drink (or smoke) at the OU football game? And, does she have any left to share?
4. Just curious...what kind of sandwich did she make? (I am hungry right now, can you tell?)
5. Who was on that jury? And, thank God none of them have bred with anyone in our family (to my knowledge)...of course there is this ONE cousin I am wondering about...(again, Jess, not YOU!)
6. Should they put in the newly-revised-after-this-dumbass-lawsuit that a driver should BREATHE while driving? (Because evidently you gotta really spell things out for this Chick).
7. What is she going to do with the windfall money from the lawsuit? Because if she is THAT dumb, I want to contact her and sell her, oh...I don't know....the Golden Gate Bridge???
8. She was awarded another new motor home by Winnebago? Why? So she can once again endanger the lives of everyone, everywhere she is going to drive it? They are just as nuts as she is....
9. What is her address? Because I don't want to go anywhere NEAR where she is living or driving.
10. Couldn't the jury just awarded the money to the Stupid-People-Who-Evidently-Need-a-lot-of-help-to-function-in-the-World Program? (She MUST be a member?)
And we wonder why our auto insurance is so expensive every year!!!!!
26 comments:
Holy cow, next time I go to the city I will watch out for a Winnebago!!! Good thing she went for sandwich instead of going to the bathroom.
Grannyann: I KNOW! I am going to worry everytime I see one too! She probably did go to the bathroom...she must have emptied out her brain in there!
AHAHAHAAHAHAH
All I could think is members of the jury turning to each other and muttering, "Geez this is stupid. But you know, she's got a point."
Makes for a interesting post, but tisn't true, but there are plenty of other REAL cases that indicate the need for tort reform.
(check Snopes.com, search Winnebago.)
Not trying to prove I'm smarter than you, OK? I enjoy your posts, don't want to discourage you. If this does discourage or embarrass you, please delete it.
AHAHAHA
Also, she will then tell her friends and family "Hey, if you're gonna drive, make sure you STAY IN THE SEAT. I had to learn the hard way."
I love your photo by the way! Nice to know who I am talking to! I hate to ask but was this an older person?, because something similar happened in Florida. W@W she was darn lucky!
GoingLikeSixty: Well, I don't know...she is a very credible person. Maybe Snopes.com isn't updated yet! She sold insurance to our hospital and it is a BIG firm...she didn't say it was a joke...so not sure what to think of this!!! I will have to write her and ask her for the AP on it!
I believe that there are people THAT stupid out there!
Kearsie: yeah. Lucky she didn't kill anyone, or herself! right?
Debb: Thanks! I had to go thru a bunch and crop other people out to find one..I don't like to have just my picture taken (alone). Did I look like you thought I would?
Seriously! This lady has a screw loose and I hate "sue happy" people like this that can take accountability for their own actions! I would've asked her if she applied the same logic to her car - set it on cruise control and jump into the back seat! The jury was stupider for awarding her this money!
Shellmo: I agree!! Maybe she didn't do it in her car only because it wasn't big enough to "go in the back to make a sandwich:!???
i work for my dad, who is an attorney. so...we get stupid people like that...all the time!! amazing that they walk amongst us!!
I heard about a similar experience from a high school senior with a van in a large, empty parking lot. Realizing he had forgotten to open the back curtains to the van, and while in "D" and at idle speed, he left the driver's seat, walked to the back, opened the curtains and returned. He said the van travelled about 50 feet or so in the process and he resumed his journey with the added level of visibility to the rear. But this was still a bad idea. For when several days later, under the influence, the same man tried the same stunt at 30 mph on a secluded stretch of road, it landed the van in the woods, totaled. This time the senior was arrested for DUI. Can you believe it!?!
Maybe this is why Monoco and Fleetwood have gone belly up....idiots like this gal.
Melissa: I bet you have some battle stories to tell...since we don't know your dad, or his firm, you should blog about them sometime...just disguise any identifying details so you don't blow confidentiality.
Petey: Oh Lord! Thank goodness he didn't kill anyone! I wonder if he is still a drinker or if he had learned his lesson?
Cathy: Yep. We, as consumers, pay millions of dollars more because of lawsuits that are frivolous!
Hey, this is cousin Jessi (Jessica, if you are NOT a friend - and I'm beginning to wonder about my dear cuz here!). Defending my honor, apparently. I am not an indiscriminate sleeper-arounder. I just like to have fun! Particularly with older men (okay, only one) who can still function between the sheets. So there!
Retired One,
I owe you an apology - I applied to "Best of Blogger" for a March/April contest, and somehow I ended up competing against you!! I meant to be placed in the "best of parenting" group, but I guess they classified me as humor. I'm totally bummed -
I'm voting for you and NOT for me!!!
Jessica: ?????
You don't need to defend your honor..I am happy for ya'!!! I only mentioned you by name there so you WOULDN'T think I was referring to you when I talked about a "cousin". You would never be an "indiscriminate sleeper-arounder"!
But, thank goodness for "functioning" older men under the sheets! ha
Lynn: No need to apologize. Don't be bummed. I think your blog is hilarious! I hope you win.
It was just fun being listed to perhaps get a few new readers to peek at my blog. I voted for YOU because I think you deserve to win!
She better not find out about the auto pilot feature on airplanes, she might bring the plane down by running into the cockpit to take over the controls because she is afraid of crashing into a cloud or a tree, ya know...
I guess it pays to be stupid. I've known stupider people. I'm just glad none of them could afford motor homes.
Having spent much of my career in the legal field, with the last 17 years of it working with personal injury cases, I've heard my share of weird stories. Several years after retirement, I still receive a number of publications associated with that career and I must say I saw this incident written up within the last few weeks. I've been looking but can't find the reference at the moment. (I may have passed it on for someone else's enjoyment.) Snopes is not always 100% informed but I do still turn to them often.
That was me driving. And I am going to go buy tons of licorice with my winnings. Thank you and good night. LOL Not really, but this stupidity is much like the HOT coffee at McD's. So I don't doubt for a second it's true. I hope nobody in my family tree has bred with her too....it's possible though.
How can some people be so stupid? It's amazing the lawsuits that some people win. It's a miracle that she didn't get some people killed on the freeway.
Insanity Kim: Those clouds might be pretty brutal!
Ratty: Wow, if you've known someone more stupid, that would be some pretty good blog posts! ha
Ramblin Mama: Thanks for saying that. Because the person that sent me that is pretty credible. She would have told me if she meant it to be a joke. I can't reach her now to vailidate it because she is on vacation. I am glad you are a witness to say you saw a similar article on the same case.
Brittany: I knew it was YOU. Damn that licorice.
You will love hearing that when my friend sent THIS one, she also forwarded one about someone who was at a fast food restaurant, got in a fight with her boyfriend, threw a soda at his face, and then proceeded to slip and fall on the wet floor (caused by the soda she threw). You guessed it...she turned around and sued the restaurant for her injuries...and WON!
Loree: I agree. I hope more juries get smarter, also!!
Whoa, I cannot believe they gave her a settlement at all, much less one that big.
*shakes her head with disgust*
Between that and the darn Octo-Mom, its making me so angry that America rewards such colossal stupidity.
On the upside, I love your witty response! :) I seriously hope she doesn't live anywhere near me either. I shall be very wary of Winnebagos from awhile now.....
This Crazy Thing: I know! And it soon will be the beginning of camping season all over the country!!
Maybe she thought she was flying a plane and was on "automatic pilot."
Patricia: Hi! Thanks for reading my blog and joining in on the comments!
Yes, too bad her brain wasn't on automatic pilot, hey?
Hope you join my blog as a follower....I checked out your blog and have joined on too!
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