Martial Arts Professional Magazine

A few months ago, Industry Insider reported that a car had crashed into one of Stephen Oliver’s Mile High Karate schools in the Denver, Colorado area. Now, in what can only be described as eerie circumstances, automobiles have been involved in three additional incidents that have damaged martial arts schools and caused bodily injuries.

Recently, in Zionsville, Indiana, a motorist crashed into Adamson’s Karate Studio, where emergency crews found the car completely inside the building. The crash occurred after-hours, so no one was inside the school and the driver wasn’t injured. He reported that he stepped on the gas, when he meant to brake.

In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, a man crashed into Dubb’s Karate, causing his passenger to sustain two broken vertebrae and cuts and bruises on her hands and head. The driver admitted to having blacked out; and, although he denied he was drinking or using drugs, his passenger had stated and then recanted a statement, indicating that they had been “huffing” on an air canister just prior to the crash. That potential evidence was not admissible because the local hospital had not conducted the appropriate blood tests on the driver.

After pleading guilty to one count of recklessly endangering another person, the driver was sentenced to two years probation and the judge ordered him to complete three times as much community service than standard, earn his high school diploma and pay his passenger $108 in restitution.

Around the world, in Queensland, Australia, a Supreme Court Justice has ruled that the driver of a car that hit a Taekwondo student in a 1989 incident and the owner of the martial arts school that the student attended should pay $730,850 (Australian) in damages. The judge also found the now-deceased Taekwondo instructor and the student that was hit also responsible, reducing the damages by 20%.

According to court records, the student, who was a juvenile at the time, was part of a class jogging near a busy roadway. He suddenly moved onto the road and was hit. Although the driver was not cited for breaking any traffic laws, the judge ruled he should have been more cautious. The student sustained head and neck injuries that have left him unable to work.