Someone Has Gone Wacko Here!

Hi Everyone,

On July 23rd of this year, a terrible crash occurred on the Tappan Zee Bridge, which crosses the Hudson River between Rockland County and Westchester County, New York. It was one of those unimaginable and horrific crashes due to the fact that Michael Schechel was driving his Ford Explorer the wrong way on I-87. He somehow managed to drive southbound in the northbound lanes. The inevitable happened a short time later when Schechel crashed head on into the car of Newman Ayeh-Brachie and his wife Hannah. Hannah was in the front passenger seat and was killed in the crash; while her husband suffered broken ribs, a broken finger and cuts and bruises. Three other vehicles crashed. Schechel, 69, suffered a head injury and his passenger, his live-in girlfriend, Luz Hoffman, 56, suffered spinal and other injuries. FYI, Schechel is a retired bus driver with a clean driving record.

Ayeh-Brachie survived and did what any normal person would do. He sued Schechel in September stating that Schechel was reckless by driving southbound in the northbound lanes, leaving him (Ayeh-Brachie) with serious and permanent injuries. The suit also states that Schechel ignored warnings by other drivers to turn around. Schechel continued to drive the wrong way until he crashed into the Ayeh-Brachie's car. All this makes sense and Ayeh-Brachie is within his legal rights to sue for the loss of his wife and for the injuries he sustained. But what happened next makes me furious with some lawyers and defendants for their frivolous court filings.

The following is true and accurate and is so outrageous that it seems incomprehensible to me. Schechel's lawyer, Sara Salvi, alleged in court papers filed last month, that Ayeh-Brachie's injuries, were at least partially caused by his "own culpable conduct" by not wearing a seat belt. So let me get this straight, an idiot drives on the wrong side of the road, hits an oncoming car head on and kills one person and injures the driver. Now the driver's injuries are his fault since he wasn't wearing a seat belt? Ayeh-Brachie's lawyer, Dennis Lynch, responded that both Ayeh-Brachie and his wife were indeed wearing seat belts. But for Schechel to pass blame or at least try to pass blame on Ayeh-Brachie's injuries is abominable. Doesn't he or his lawyer have any common sense? Apparently not even a microgram between them!!! As Schechel stated, he had no idea he was driving the wrong way. What country does he live in? Where ever we drive in this country, the median or center lines are always on the left side of the road. So when he was driving, on that fateful day, the median was on his right side and oncoming traffic was on his side, coming right towards him. Being a retired bus driver, he had to have known something was wrong. I hope the Judge in this case throws out Schechel's response claim and eventually throws the book at him.

Til next week.

Peter