Venus Williams Granted Emergency Order in Crash Suit

Judge temporarily blocked inspection of car involved in the crash
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 7, 2017 7:25 AM CDT
Venus Williams Granted Emergency Order in Crash Suit
Venus Williams at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London on Wednesday.   (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Venus Williams is set to take on Japan's Naomi Osaka at Wimbledon Friday, but she's already scored a tiny win in a different kind of court. A Palm Beach County judge on Wednesday granted an emergency request by Williams' attorney to temporarily block an inspection of a car involved in a fatal car crash, for which Williams is being sued. Her attorney, Kevin Yombor, said lawyers for the family of Jerome Barson, who died two weeks after the June 9 crash in Florida, gave less than a day's notice that they would be inspecting the 2016 Hyundai Accent that carried Barson. Yombor argued experts from both sides should be present for the inspection given concerns that data downloaded from the car might be lost, reports the Palm Beach Post.

Barson's family says Williams "negligently operated" her vehicle at a six-lane intersection and is responsible for the crash. Barson died June 22 after suffering "severed main arteries, massive internal bleeding, a fractured spine, and massive internal organ damage," a lawsuit reads, per USA Today. Williams, however, says she had a green light when she entered the intersection and was stopped by traffic. "The on-board data of both vehicles will be critical evidence," Yombor wrote in court documents, per the Sun Sentinel, asking that the inspection not happen until "a procedure is in place to ensure that the data of each vehicle is properly collected." The judge granted the request just an hour after it was submitted Wednesday. The next hearing in the case is 2:30pm Friday. (More Venus Williams stories.)

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