Bloomington mother ordered to pay $1 million in restitution

A McLean County judge ordered a Bloomington woman to pay $1 million in restitution to a boy who was paralyzed in an accident when he was hit by a car operated by the woman's daughter.  Reportedly, the woman instructed her daughter to use the family car to pick up her siblings even though she knew that the daughter did not know how to drive.  The boy is now a ventilator-dependent parapalegic.

While the restitution figure is a large one, it will not come nearly close to paying the medical bills this young man will have to pay over the course of his lifetime due to the car accident, if he has not in fact exceeded them already.  In fact, in really does not put a real dent in the the amount of economic loss this young man has incurred, not to mention his real losses in terms of his life's prospects.  As he noted in his statements in court, his life's dreams have gone down the drain.

This is a criminal court order, and the family of this young man would have the option of pursuing both the mother and daughter in civil court.  The daughter's liability would be based on simple negligent driving, while the mother's laibility would be based on a theory of negligent entrustment.  A negligent entrustment case requires that the defendant entrusted a dangerous instrumebntality (in this case a car) to someone she should have known was not fit to handle it.  The facts of this car accident case seem to support a claim of negligent entrustment.

Sadly, there will never be enough money to compensate this young man fo reverything he has lost.