A Dad Named Sue

The father of the St. Louis Cardinals pitcher, Josh Hancock, recently killed in a car crash is suing everybody in the phone book for being contributors to his son's death. Hancock was drunk, speeding, talking on his cell phone and not wearing a seat belt when he slammed into a tow truck that was helping a stalled car on the interstate. But it's everybody else's fault.

Named in the lawsuit, according to this Comcast article, are Cardinals radio announcer Mike Shannon's restaurant, Shannon's daughter and restaurant manager, the towing company, the tow truck driver and the driver of the stalled car. Apparently the stalled car and tow truck were not out of the way of oncoming traffic. The driver of the stalled car is being sued for being "negligent in allowing his vehicle to reach the point where it stalled on the highway, and for failing to move it out of the way of oncoming traffic." It's not clear whether the Cardinals or Major League Baseball will be added to the lawsuit. They probably won't, since they have enough money to squash this guy in a lawsuit of such high profile.

What's interesting about this is that using the father's own logic, a case could just as easily be made, and maybe more easy to win, that his own negligence as a father in raising somebody who would do such a thing contributed to the damage to the tow truck and to the now stained name of the driver of the stalled car. I can't wait to see if the name of the person Hancock was talking to on the cell phone is released and why that person wasn't named in the lawsuit. He or she probably could tell he was drunk and that he was driving a car. Now that would be a freaky thing, to be talking to somebody on the phone and have them die in an accident during your conversation.